IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v13y2021i4p1704-d493783.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Initial Labor Market Conditions in Developing Economies as a Factor in Understanding the Progression of SARS-CoV-2: The Case of Chile

Author

Listed:
  • Manuel Pérez Trujillo

    (Departamento de Economía, Instituto de Economía Aplicada Regional (IDEAR), Universidad Católica del Norte, Antofagasta 1240000, Chile)

  • Miguel Atienza

    (Departamento de Economía, Instituto de Economía Aplicada Regional (IDEAR), Universidad Católica del Norte, Antofagasta 1240000, Chile)

Abstract

This study assesses how the initial economic context of a country functions as a factor in the progression of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. To do so, we analyze Chile during the first wave of the pandemic. Chile is a developing country that suffered an unprecedented social disturbance (the Social Outbreak) that deteriorated economic activity and increased unemployment just months before the pandemic begun. We empirically test the hypothesis that the previous deterioration in the labor market, as an indicator of economic deterioration at the beginning of the pandemic, impacted the infection rate. Our results show a positive and significant relationship between unemployment prior to the pandemic at a provincial level and the number of individuals infected by SARS-CoV-2. All in all, we provide evidence that the initial social and socioeconomic conditions of each territory must be considered in the design of any policy aimed at minimizing the effects of the pandemic.

Suggested Citation

  • Manuel Pérez Trujillo & Miguel Atienza, 2021. "The Initial Labor Market Conditions in Developing Economies as a Factor in Understanding the Progression of SARS-CoV-2: The Case of Chile," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(4), pages 1-20, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:4:p:1704-:d:493783
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/4/1704/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/4/1704/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Julio A. Berdegué & Tatiana Hiller & Juan Mauricio Ramírez & Santiago Satizábal & Isidro Soloaga & Juan Soto & Miguel Uribe & Olga Vargas, 2019. "Delineating functional territories from outer space," Latin American Economic Review, Springer;Centro de Investigaciòn y Docencia Económica (CIDE), vol. 28(1), pages 1-24, December.
    2. Facundo Piguillem & Liyan Shi, 2022. "Optimal Covid-19 Quarantine and Testing Policies," The Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 132(647), pages 2534-2562.
    3. Edoardo Di Porto & Paolo Naticchioni & Vincenzo Scrutinio, 2020. "Partial Lockdown and the Spread of Covid-19: Lessons from the Italian Case," CSEF Working Papers 569, Centre for Studies in Economics and Finance (CSEF), University of Naples, Italy.
    4. Fernando E. Alvarez & David Argente & Francesco Lippi, 2020. "A Simple Planning Problem for COVID-19 Lockdown," NBER Working Papers 26981, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    5. J. M. Casado-Diaz, 2000. "Local Labour Market Areas in Spain: A Case Study," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 34(9), pages 843-856.
    6. Chiappori, Pierre-Andre, 1992. "Collective Labor Supply and Welfare," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 100(3), pages 437-467, June.
    7. Aroca, Patricio & Atienza, Miguel, 2011. "Economic implications of long distance commuting in the Chilean mining industry," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 36(3), pages 196-203, September.
    8. Baltagi, Badi H. & Wu, Ping X., 1999. "Unequally Spaced Panel Data Regressions With Ar(1) Disturbances," Econometric Theory, Cambridge University Press, vol. 15(6), pages 814-823, December.
    9. Robert E. Hall & Charles I. Jones & Peter J. Klenow, 2020. "Trading Off Consumption and COVID-19 Deaths," Quarterly Review, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, vol. 42(1), pages 1-14, June.
    10. Mortensen, Dale T, 1970. "Job Search, the Duration of Unemployment, and the Phillips Curve," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 60(5), pages 847-862, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Ichino, Andrea & Favero, Carlo A. & Rustichini, Aldo, 2020. "Restarting the economy while saving lives under Covid-19," CEPR Discussion Papers 14664, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    2. Pablo D. Fajgelbaum & Amit Khandelwal & Wookun Kim & Cristiano Mantovani & Edouard Schaal, 2021. "Optimal Lockdown in a Commuting Network," American Economic Review: Insights, American Economic Association, vol. 3(4), pages 503-522, December.
    3. Jean-Noël Barrot & Basile Grassi & Julien Sauvagnat, 2020. "Estimating the Costs and Benefits of Mandated Business Closures in a Pandemic," Working Papers hal-02896739, HAL.
    4. Christian Moser & Pierre Yared, 2022. "Pandemic Lockdown: The Role of Government Commitment," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 46, pages 27-50, October.
    5. Rikard Forslid & Mathias Herzing, 2021. "Assessing the consequences of quarantines during a pandemic," The European Journal of Health Economics, Springer;Deutsche Gesellschaft für Gesundheitsökonomie (DGGÖ), vol. 22(7), pages 1115-1128, September.
    6. Timo Boppart & Karl Harmenberg & John Hassler & Per Krusell & Jonna Olsson, 2020. "Integrated Epi-Econ Assessment," NBER Working Papers 28282, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    7. Yasushi Iwamoto, 2021. "Welfare economics of managing an epidemic: an exposition," The Japanese Economic Review, Springer, vol. 72(4), pages 537-579, October.
    8. Farboodi, Maryam & Jarosch, Gregor & Shimer, Robert, 2021. "Internal and external effects of social distancing in a pandemic," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 196(C).
    9. Garriga, Carlos & Manuelli, Rody & Sanghi, Siddhartha, 2022. "Optimal management of an epidemic: Lockdown, vaccine and value of life," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 140(C).
    10. Çakmaklı, Cem & Demiralp, Selva & Özcan, Şebnem Kalemli & Yeşiltaş, Sevcan & Yıldırım, Muhammed A., 2023. "COVID-19 and emerging markets: A SIR model, demand shocks and capital flows," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 145(C).
    11. V. V. Chari & Rishabh Kirpalani & Christopher Phelan, 2021. "The Hammer and the Scalpel: On the Economics of Indiscriminate versus Targeted Isolation Policies during Pandemics," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 42, pages 1-14, October.
    12. Chen, Kexin & Pun, Chi Seng & Wong, Hoi Ying, 2023. "Efficient social distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic: Integrating economic and public health considerations," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 304(1), pages 84-98.
    13. Ricardo Hausmann & Ulrich Schetter, 2020. "Horrible Trade-offs in a Pandemic: Lockdowns, Transfers, Fiscal Space, and Compliance," CID Working Papers 382, Center for International Development at Harvard University.
    14. Kent A. Smetters, 2020. "Stay-at-home orders and second waves: a graphical exposition," The Geneva Risk and Insurance Review, Palgrave Macmillan;International Association for the Study of Insurance Economics (The Geneva Association), vol. 45(2), pages 94-103, September.
    15. Andrew B. Abel & Stavros Panageas, 2020. "Social Distancing, Vaccination and the Paradoxical Optimality of an Endemic Equilibrium," NBER Working Papers 27742, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    16. Karolina Drela & Agnieszka Malkowska & Anna Bera & Anna Tokarz-Kocik, 2021. "Instruments for Managing the EU Labour Market in the Face of the COVID-19 Crisis," European Research Studies Journal, European Research Studies Journal, vol. 0(1), pages 984-998.
    17. Greg Kaplan & Benjamin Moll & Giovanni L. Violante, 2020. "The Great Lockdown and the Big Stimulus: Tracing the Pandemic Possibility Frontier for the U.S," NBER Working Papers 27794, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    18. Etienne Farvaque & Hira Iqbal & Nicolas Ooghe, 2020. "Health politics? Determinants of US states’ reactions to COVID-19," Post-Print hal-03128875, HAL.
    19. Guimarães, Luís, 2021. "Antibody tests: They are more important than we thought," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 93(C).
    20. Manuel Pérez-Trujillo & Mauricio Oyarzo Aguilar & Dusan Paredes Araya, 2020. "Long-distance commuting and the effect of differentiated salary expectations in the commuters’ place of living on the wage obtained in the place of working," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 65(2), pages 459-489, October.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:4:p:1704-:d:493783. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.