The impact of COVID-19 pandemic and its associations with government responses in Europe

Abstract

Although stringent containment strategies are generally effective in slowing COVID-19 transmission, they also entail severe socioeconomic implications. This study uses aggregated data from Eurostat and the Oxford COVID-19 Government Response Tracker (OxCGRT) to quantify changes in GDP and their association with the stringency index. We examine the evolution of Covid-19 cases and deaths per 100.000 thousand inhabitants in Europe and discuss the impact on the economy. On average, EU member states witnessed an 11.4% reduction in their GDP, due to the COVID-19 crisis. The impact on the southern member states was even greater. We use OxCGRT methodology to rank the European countries on their performance against COVID-19 on the base of four aggregate indices referring to: i) the overall government response, ii) containment and health measures, iii) the stringency index and iv) economic support measures. It is shown that the southern European states and Ireland, top the rankings in terms of the stringency of the implement strategies to contain the pandemic.