The Effect of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Economic Growth and R&D Spending in Czechia, Germany, and Poland

The article investigates the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on economic growth, specifically focusing on research and development (R&D) expenditures in the Czech Republic, Germany, and Poland. The analysis spans the periods preceding, during, and following the pandemic. The central objective of the article is to examine whether the pandemic, considering the implemented restrictions and associated financial aid, influenced the economic growth trajectory and the allocation of resources to research and development in the aforementioned Central European countries. The research utilizes time series data from 2011 to 2022, sourced from Eurostat, to track the evolution of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and Gross Expenditure on Research and Development (GERD). Key indicators under scrutiny included GDP, GERD, and R&D intensity – GERD as a percentage of GDP. A chain index was constructed to facilitate not only cross-country comparisons of these indicators but also an examination of year-to-year changes and an analysis of the growth rate of the GERD indicator. The research findings reveal that that COVID-19 really affected not only the development of the monitored economies but also the R&D area; however, it was not the same in all the monitored countries. The impact of the pandemic can be seen in the decline in GDP in all three countries in 2020, but GERD decreased in only two of them – the Czech Republic and Germany. Poland experienced a significant increase in research and development funding in real terms. Both indicators (GDP and GERD) immediately resumed their growth in 2021 in all analyzed countries. From that it can be concluded that the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the GDP and GERD of the Czech Republic, Germany and Poland was not of a long-term nature.