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...
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World Bank, Washington, DC
2021
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| 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 |
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okr-10986-356342021-06-02T05:10:47Z Death and Destitution : The Global Distribution of Welfare Losses from the COVID-19 Pandemic Ferreira, Francisco H. G. Sterck, Olivier Mahler, Daniel Decerf, Benoit CORONAVIRUS COVID-19 PANDEMIC IMPACT WELFARE GLOBAL WEALTH DISTRIBUTION POVERTY MORTALITY 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. 2021-06-01T22:16:33Z 2021-06-01T22:16:33Z 2021-05 Working Paper 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 English Policy Brief: Malawi;No. 9673 CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo World Bank World Bank, Washington, DC Publications & Research Publications & Research :: Policy Research Working Paper |
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Digital Repository |
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Foreign Institution |
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Digital Repositories |
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World Bank Open Knowledge Repository |
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World Bank |
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English |
| topic |
CORONAVIRUS COVID-19 PANDEMIC IMPACT WELFARE GLOBAL WEALTH DISTRIBUTION POVERTY MORTALITY |
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CORONAVIRUS COVID-19 PANDEMIC IMPACT WELFARE GLOBAL WEALTH DISTRIBUTION POVERTY MORTALITY Ferreira, Francisco H. G. Sterck, Olivier Mahler, Daniel Decerf, Benoit Death and Destitution : The Global Distribution of Welfare Losses from the COVID-19 Pandemic |
| relation |
Policy Brief: Malawi;No. 9673 |
| description |
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. |
| format |
Working Paper |
| author |
Ferreira, Francisco H. G. Sterck, Olivier Mahler, Daniel Decerf, Benoit |
| author_facet |
Ferreira, Francisco H. G. Sterck, Olivier Mahler, Daniel Decerf, Benoit |
| author_sort |
Ferreira, Francisco H. G. |
| title |
Death and Destitution : The Global Distribution of Welfare Losses from the COVID-19 Pandemic |
| title_short |
Death and Destitution : The Global Distribution of Welfare Losses from the COVID-19 Pandemic |
| title_full |
Death and Destitution : The Global Distribution of Welfare Losses from the COVID-19 Pandemic |
| title_fullStr |
Death and Destitution : The Global Distribution of Welfare Losses from the COVID-19 Pandemic |
| title_full_unstemmed |
Death and Destitution : The Global Distribution of Welfare Losses from the COVID-19 Pandemic |
| title_sort |
death and destitution : the global distribution of welfare losses from the covid-19 pandemic |
| publisher |
World Bank, Washington, DC |
| publishDate |
2021 |
| url |
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 |
| _version_ |
1764483464519745536 |