IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/pra/mprapa/113739.html

The Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on Social Welfare and the Health System Capacity of East African Economies: A Comparative Analysis

Author

Listed:
  • Amutabi, Cyprian

Abstract

This study analyzed the degree of impact of COVID-19 on social welfare and health system capacity across some selected EAC countries using monthly series data for the period March 2020-May 2021. The potential Intensive Care Unit (ICU) bed and ventilator surge capacity were estimated based on the confirmed COVID-19 cases & the actual number of ICU beds and oxygen ventilators while the degree of variation of the pandemic’s impact on social welfare was analyzed using the Pooled Mean Group (PMG) estimator. The findings revealed the existence of significant gaps across hospitals in the EAC region in accommodating any potential surge in the caseload emanating from COVID-19. This was evidenced by a continuously rising number of confirmed COVID-19 cases against a backdrop of a limited number of ICU beds and ventilators needed to provide critical care. The PMG results revealed that COVID-19 significantly decreased the Consumer Price Index (CPI) in the long run. In the short run, the impact was negative and significant for Kenya but insignificant for Rwanda, South Sudan, and Uganda. Conversely, COVID-19 significantly increased oil prices in the long run. In the short run, the impact was positive and significant for South Sudan but negative and insignificant for Uganda. This study, thus, recommended adequate investment in the health sector targeted at a substantial increase in the number of ICU beds and ventilators. Further, governments within the region need to employ a coordinated approach in addressing welfare effects stemming from increased oil prices. There is a need to promote regional market integration & cooperation within the EAC region regarding oil. A robust & vibrant EAC oil market will enable countries within the region to harness optimal benefits from their oil reserves as well as withstand any global price shock dynamics that emanate from a pandemic of this nature.

Suggested Citation

  • Amutabi, Cyprian, 2021. "The Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on Social Welfare and the Health System Capacity of East African Economies: A Comparative Analysis," MPRA Paper 113739, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    • Handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:113739
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/113739/1/MPRA_paper_113739.docx
    File Function: original version
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/113739/2/MPRA_paper_113739.pdf
    File Function: original version
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. John E. Ataguba, 2020. "COVID-19 Pandemic, a War to be Won: Understanding its Economic Implications for Africa," Applied Health Economics and Health Policy, Springer, vol. 18(3), pages 325-328, June.
    2. Pesaran, M. Hashem & Smith, Ron, 1995. "Estimating long-run relationships from dynamic heterogeneous panels," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 68(1), pages 79-113, July.
    3. Seydou Coulibaly, 2021. "COVID‐19 policy responses, inflation and spillover effects in the West African Economic and Monetary Union," African Development Review, African Development Bank, vol. 33(S1), pages 139-151, April.
    4. Woubet Kassa, 2020. "COVID-19 and Trade in SSA," World Bank Publications - Reports 33841, The World Bank Group.
    5. repec:wbk:wbpubs:33044 is not listed on IDEAS
    6. repec:wbk:wbpubs:33748 is not listed on IDEAS
    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. George S. Chen & Emmanuel Kwaku Manu & Dennis Asante, 2023. "Achieving environmental sustainability in Africa: The role of financial institutions development on carbon emissions," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 31(5), pages 3272-3290, October.
    2. Jing Xing, 2011. "Does tax structure affect economic growth? Empirical evidence from OECD countries," Working Papers 1120, Oxford University Centre for Business Taxation.
    3. Daniel Fehrle, 2023. "Hedging against inflation: housing versus equity," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 65(6), pages 2583-2626, December.
    4. Huy Quang Doan, 2019. "Trade, Institutional Quality and Income: Empirical Evidence for Sub-Saharan Africa," Economies, MDPI, vol. 7(2), pages 1-23, May.
    5. Aysit Tansel & Nil Demet Güngör, 2016. "Gender Effects of Education on Economic Development in Turkey," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Nadereh Chamlou & Massoud Karshenas (ed.), Women, Work and Welfare in the Middle East and North Africa The Role of Socio-demographics, Entrepreneurship and Public Policies, chapter 3, pages 57-86, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    6. Pesaran, M. Hashem & Schuermann, Til & Treutler, Bjorn-Jakob & Weiner, Scott M., 2006. "Macroeconomic Dynamics and Credit Risk: A Global Perspective," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 38(5), pages 1211-1261, August.
    7. Metiu, Norbert, 2021. "Anticipation effects of protectionist U.S. trade policies," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 133(C).
    8. Guglielmo Maria Caporale & Anamaria Diana Sova & Robert Sova, 2024. "The Covid‐19 pandemic and European trade flows: Evidence from a dynamic panel model," International Journal of Finance & Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 29(3), pages 2563-2580, July.
    9. Juan de Dios Tena & César Salazar, 2008. "Explaining inflation and output volatility in Chile: an empirical analysis of forty years," Revista Cuadernos de Economia, Universidad Nacional de Colombia, FCE, CID.
    10. Jana Chovancová & Igor Petruška, 2026. "Exploring the Drivers of Decarbonization in the EU: The Impact of Economic Growth, Energy Use, Land Management and Urbanization on CO2 Emissions," Comparative Economic Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Association for Comparative Economic Studies, vol. 68(3), pages 1-35, September.
    11. Ouyang, Yaofu & Li, Peng, 2018. "On the nexus of financial development, economic growth, and energy consumption in China: New perspective from a GMM panel VAR approach," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 71(C), pages 238-252.
    12. Nazish Tariq & Minhaj Ali & Muhammad Usman, 2025. "Impact of human capital and natural resources on environmental quality in South Asia," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 27(12), pages 30649-30669, December.
    13. Gangopadhyay, Partha & Jain, Siddharth & Bakry, Walid, 2022. "In search of a rational foundation for the massive IT boom in the Australian banking industry: Can the IT boom really drive relationship banking?," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 82(C).
    14. Victor Pontines & Reza Y. Siregar, 2017. "Non-core Liabilities and Monetary Policy Transmission in Indonesia during the Post-2007 Global Financial Crisis," CAMA Working Papers 2017-78, Centre for Applied Macroeconomic Analysis, Crawford School of Public Policy, The Australian National University.
    15. Saima Javed & Yu Rong & Hafiz Muhammad Ihsan Zafeer & Samra Maqbool & Babar Nawaz Abbasi, 2024. "Unleashing the potential: a quest to understand and examine the factors enriching research and innovation productivities of South Asian universities," Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 11(1), pages 1-15, December.
    16. Dierk Herzer, 2024. "A panel data analysis of the long-run effect of environmental taxes on R&D expenditures at the macro-level," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 44(3), pages 1169-1180.
    17. Eregha, Perekunah B. & Aworinde, Olalekan B. & Vo, Xuan Vinh, 2022. "Modeling twin deficit hypothesis with oil price volatility in African oil-producing countries," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 75(C).
    18. Christian Schoder, 2014. "The fundamentals of sovereign debt sustainability: evidence from 15 OECD countries," Empirica, Springer;Austrian Institute for Economic Research;Austrian Economic Association, vol. 41(2), pages 247-271, May.
    19. Zaheer Abbas, 2020. "Re-assessing the Contribution of Energy Consumption to GDP Per- Capita: Evidence from Developed and Developing Countries," International Journal of Energy Economics and Policy, Econjournals, vol. 10(6), pages 404-410.
    20. Mariarosaria Comunale & Markus Eller & Mathias Lahnsteiner, 2020. "Assessing credit gaps in CESEE based on levels justified by fundamentals – a comparison across different estimation approaches," Bank of Lithuania Working Paper Series 74, Bank of Lithuania.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • H12 - Public Economics - - Structure and Scope of Government - - - Crisis Management
    • I14 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Health and Inequality
    • I31 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - General Welfare, Well-Being

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:pra:mprapa:113739. 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: Joachim Winter (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/vfmunde.html .

    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.