The analysis of the factors affecting the stringency index during COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, which started in China’s Wuhan providence in the late 2019s, and then affected the entire world in a short time, causing high disease and death rates, was one of the most important unexpected crises of 21st century. In order to manage the risk the pandemic posed on public health and public order, and to control spread of the disease, governments implemented restriction policies, in which precautions such as limitation and closure were taken. This study aims to examine the factors affecting the stringency index, an indicator of the political measures taken by governments against the epidemic in the selected countries (the United Kingdom, Italy, France, Germany, Türkiye, Russia, Brazil, the United States of America, India) during COVID-19 pandemic. In the analysis, non-additive fixed effect panel quantile regression model with the instrumental variable was used. The data set covers the period between March 11, 2020 and June 29, 2021. The findings indicate that although the level of effects varied, an increase in the number of daily deaths has an increasing effect on the stringency index value in all the countries within the study. Meanwhile, it is observed that as the rate of people with age 65 and over increases, the stringency measures also increase in the countries implemented moderate and high-level restrictions.