The Cost of Staying Healthy

El costo de Mantenerse Sanos

World Bank

No 34602, World Bank Publications - Reports from The World Bank Group

Abstract: Latin America and the Caribbean was hit hard by the Covid-19 pandemic, which arrived on the back of years of disappointing economic growth and limited social progress, and after a wave of social unrest. This report reviews the impacts of the crisis as well as the policy responses by countries, which often involved sizeable social transfers. It also presents growth forecasts, and quarterly growth estimates based on satellite imagery. With countries experiencing a diverse mix of health costs and economic costs, the report analyzes how the effectiveness of containment policies, and their impact on economic activity, differ between richer and poorer countries. It also assesses the cost of staying healthy in normal times, showing how it is affected by the structure of the domestic pharmaceutical sector and by the effectiveness of public procurement of medicines. As the region may have to live with the virus for a while, four policy directions are proposed for discussion.

Keywords: Macroeconomics; and; Economic; Growth-Business; Cycles; and; Stabilization; Policies; Macroeconomics; and; Economic; Growth-Economic; Growth; Macroeconomics; and; Economic; Growth-Fiscal; &; Monetary; Policy; Macroeconomics; and; Economic; Growth-Macroeconomic; Management; Poverty; Reduction-Inequality; Social; Protections; and; Labor-Employment; and; Unemployment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
Note: ISBN 978-1-4648-1650-5
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/bitstreams/bcc ... a331a186470/download (application/pdf)

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:wbk:wboper:34602

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in World Bank Publications - Reports from The World Bank Group 1818 H Street, N.W., Washington, DC 20433. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Tal Ayalon ().