Death and Destitution : The Global Distribution of Welfare Losses from the COVID-19 Pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic has brought about massive declines in well-being around the world. This paper seeks to quantify and compare two important components of those losses—increased mortality and higher poverty—using years of human life as a common...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | Working Paper |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
2021
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/350931621877797558/Death-and-Destitution-The-Global-Distribution-of-Welfare-Losses-from-the-COVID-19-Pandemic http://hdl.handle.net/10986/35634 |
| Summary: | The COVID-19 pandemic has brought about
massive declines in well-being around the world. This paper
seeks to quantify and compare two important components of
those losses—increased mortality and higher poverty—using
years of human life as a common metric. The paper estimates
that almost 20 million life-years were lost to COVID-19 by
December 2020. Over the same period and by the most
conservative definition, more than 120 million additional
years were spent in poverty because of the pandemic. The
mortality burden, whether estimated in lives or years of
life lost, increases sharply with gross domestic product per
capita. By contrast, the poverty burden declines with per
capita national income when a constant absolute poverty line
is used, or is uncorrelated with national income when a more
relative approach is taken to poverty lines. In both cases,
the poverty burden of the pandemic, relative to the
mortality burden, is much higher for poor countries. The
distribution of aggregate welfare losses—combining mortality
and poverty and expressed in terms of life-years —depends on
the choice of poverty line(s) and the relative weights
placed on mortality and poverty. With a constant absolute
poverty line and a relatively low welfare weight on
mortality, poorer countries are found to bear a greater
welfare loss from the pandemic. When poverty lines are set
differently for poor, middle-income, and high-income
countries and/or a greater welfare weight is placed on
mortality, upper-middle-income and rich countries suffer the most. |
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