The impact of economic sanctions on the COVID-19 pandemic

Mo Chen, Wei-Xian Xue, Xin-Xin Zhao, Chun-Ping Chang and Xiaoxia Liu

Economic Analysis and Policy, 2024, vol. 82, issue C, 163-174

Abstract: It is important to examine how international economic sanctions affect public health responses and outcomes during the COVID-19 pandemic, highlighting the need for effective global health strategies amidst geopolitical tensions. This research empirically examines how economic sanctions affect the spread of the COVID-19 epidemic in target countries for the period February 1, 2020 to December 31, 2022. We use a difference-in-differences (DID) estimator and our sample includes 181 countries, 83 of which are subject to economic sanctions. We document evidence that economic sanctions have a significant negative impact on the spread of the epidemic in the targeted countries by increasing daily confirmed cases and deaths. These negative effects are also more pronounced (i) with a longer duration of sanctions and (ii) for Asian countries. Furthermore, we find that the negative effect of economic sanctions is weaker when government responses are more severe.

Keywords: Economic sanctions; COVID-19 epidemic spread; Governments’ responses (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H51 H75 I18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:ecanpo:v:82:y:2024:i:c:p:163-174

DOI: 10.1016/j.eap.2024.03.005

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