The Geographical Conditioning of Regional Differentiation Characterising the COVID-19 Pandemic in European Countries

Marcin Mazur (), Jerzy Bański and Wioletta Kamińska
Additional contact information
Marcin Mazur: Department of Rural Geography and Local Development, Institute of Geography and Spatial Organization, Polish Academy of Sciences, Twarda Str. 51/55, 00-818 Warsaw, Poland
Jerzy Bański: Department of Rural Geography and Local Development, Institute of Geography and Spatial Organization, Polish Academy of Sciences, Twarda Str. 51/55, 00-818 Warsaw, Poland
Wioletta Kamińska: Department of Socio-Economic Geography, Institute of Geography and Earth Sciences, Jan Kochanowski University of Kielce, Uniwersytecka Str. 7, 25-406 Kielce, Poland

IJERPH, 2024, vol. 21, issue 10, 1-20

Abstract: The aim of this paper is to assess the influence of selected geographical factors on the diversity of the development of the COVID-19 pandemic in Europe’s regions, and on its dynamics across the continent. The work took into account 250 of NUTS-2 regions. The datasets included the course of the COVID-19 pandemic (two dependent variables), intervening actions (four variables of the research background), and potential environmental and socio-economic conditioning (twelve independent variables). The dependent variables’ set was composed of two indexes: morbidity and temporal inertia. The temporal scope of the research was 23 March 2020–15 May 2022, with weekly resolution. By means of multiple linear regression model, the influence of the administrative actions and of the selected natural and socio-economic factors was assessed. Finally, a synthetic Regional Epidemic Vulnerability Index (REVI) for each individual region was calculated. It allowed us to classify the regions into three categories: resistant, neutral, or sensitive. REVI’s spatial distribution indicates that the zone of above-average vulnerability occurred in the western part of Europe and around the Alps. Therefore, focus ought to extend beyond regional statistics, towards spatial relationships, like contiguous or transit position. This research also validated the strong impact of national borders.

Keywords: COVID-19 pandemic; European regions; geographical conditions; multiple regression (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/21/10/1342/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/21/10/1342/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:21:y:2024:i:10:p:1342-:d:1495887

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().