Sosyal Ekonomik Araştırmalar Dergisi (Apr 2021)
THE EFFECTS OF PANDEMIC DISEASES ON THE WORLD ECONOMY
Abstract
Humanity had suffered from many devastating experiences as a result of wars and socio-political vices. The general health conditions of society have been one of the world-reshaping effects. However, humans had forgot quickly the devastated effects of the previous pandemic diseases. By 2020 the world had to meet with COVID-19, a global novel virus leading that has led to mass losses of lives and socio-economic crises. Observing the psychosocial changes, it sounded inevitable to consider the potential economic effects of COVID-19 pandemic as compared with previous SARS-COV and MERS-COV. Consequently, the impacts of those previous diseases on macro-economic conditions, income level and labour market composition of 16 selected countries were evaluated putting into consideration the recent literature on the economic impact of the novel virus on these macroeconomic variables. The findings of the evaluation showed that the more fatal SARS-COV had depreciating effects on all economies, while MERS-COV had affected limited number of countries due to its contagious area. Yet, the past epidemics mostly affected the labour market and services sector. It can be foreseen that the services sector will be affected negatively even after the end of COVID-19 pandemic and all economies would face declining labour demand specifically in the services market due to reduced revenues in these sectors. Conversely, changing consumption attitudes and further rising tendency for online shopping and provision of services may lead compensation for losses in the services sector by agriculture and food industries. Finally, the future impacts of the pandemic may be analysed as more micro-data on the households consumption patterns emerge. Keywords: COVID-19, income, agriculture, services, labour market
