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Contribution Details
| Type | Master's Thesis |
| Scope | Discipline-based scholarship |
| Title | Was the 2008 financial crisis responsible for life losses in the COVID-19 pandemic, with evidence from the USA |
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| Institution | University of Zurich |
| Faculty | Faculty of Business, Economics and Informatics |
| Date | 2022 |
| Abstract Text | Could more severe economic loss in the 2008/09 financial crisis lead to higher COVID-19 case death rates at the state level in the US? To empirically verify this question, this paper uses a COVID-19 data set of all states in the US from March to May in 2020, together with data from multiple sources on financial crisis severity and other economic and demographic indicators. Main results can be summarized into three aspects: First, in the initial stage of the pandemic, larger decline in GDP growth and increase in debt growth during the 2008 financial crisis fostered higher COVID-19 case fatality rates among US states. Second, this paper verifies that the 2008 economic crisis affected COVID-19 case death rates through cutting expenditures in the public healthcare systems, especially on the number of curative beds. Third, rising adult obesity rates in the US amplified negative effects of the 2008 financial recession on COVID-19 case fatality rates. To conclude, findings in this paper suggest that the impact of financial instability may be underestimated if its effect on the public health sector in the long term is neglected. Coordinated efforts are needed to strengthen the financial system while ensuring adequate funding to buffer the healthcare systems from unanticipated and exogenous shocks in the future. I |
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