Download This Paper'Long GFC'? The Global Financial Crisis, Health Care, and COVID-19 Deaths
Swiss Finance Institute Research Paper No. 22-44
Economic Inquiry, Forthcoming
59 Pages Posted: 6 Jun 2022 Last revised: 2 Nov 2023
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'Long GFC'? The Global Financial Crisis, Health Care, and COVID-19 Deaths
"Long Gfc"? The Global Financial Crisis, Health Care, and Covid-19 Deaths
Date Written: May 25, 2022
Abstract
Do financial crises affect long-term public health? To answer this question, we study the connection between the 2007-2009 Global Financial Crisis (GFC) and the 2020-2022 pandemic. Specifically, we examine the relation between macroeconomic and financial losses derived from the GFC, and the health outcomes associated with the first wave of the pandemic. At the European level, countries more affected by the financial crisis had more deaths relative to coronavirus cases. An analogous relation emerges across Spanish provinces and US states. Part of the transmission from finance to health outcomes appears to have occurred through cross-sectional differences in health care facilities.
Note:
Funding Information: Ongena acknowledges financial support from grant ERC ADG 2016 - GA 740272 lending from the European Research Council.
Conflict of Interests: We declare that we have no relevant or material financial interests that relate to the research described in this paper.
Keywords: Global Financial Crisis (GFC); COVID-19; local sovereign debt; death ratio; curative beds
JEL Classification: I10, G21, H1
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation
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