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The impact of past pandemics on economic and gender inequalities

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  • Brzezinski, Michal

Abstract

This paper estimates how previous major pandemic events affected economic and gender inequalities in the short- to medium run. We consider the impact of six major pandemic episodes – H3N2 Flu (1968), SARS (2003), H1N1 Swine Flu (2009), MERS (2012), Ebola (2014), and Zika (2016) – on cross-country inequalities in samples of 46–167 countries observed over 1950–2019. Results show that the past pandemics have moderately increased income inequality in the affected countries in the period of four to five years after the pandemic’s start. On the other hand, we do not find any robust negative impacts on wealth inequality. The results concerning gender inequality are less consistent, but we find some evidence of declining gender equality among the hardest hit countries. Moreover, the gender gap in unemployment grew within the four years after the onset of the pandemic.

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  • Brzezinski, Michal, 2021. "The impact of past pandemics on economic and gender inequalities," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 43(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ehbiol:v:43:y:2021:i:c:s1570677x21000630
    DOI: 10.1016/j.ehb.2021.101039
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    Cited by:

    1. Doran, Áine & Colvin, Christopher L. & McLaughlin, Eoin, 2023. "What can we learn from historical pandemics? A systematic review of the literature," QUCEH Working Paper Series 23-10, Queen's University Belfast, Queen's University Centre for Economic History.
    2. Adriana Reveiu & Daniela Luminita Constantin, 2023. "The impact of the COVID‐19 pandemic on regional inequalities in Romania. Spotlight on unemployment and health conditions," Regional Science Policy & Practice, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 15(3), pages 644-658, April.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Pandemics; Income inequality; Wealth inequality; Gender inequality; Covid-19;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I14 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Health and Inequality
    • D31 - Microeconomics - - Distribution - - - Personal Income and Wealth Distribution
    • J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination

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