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The COVID-19 Pandemic and Its Management: Insights from Health Economics
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The COVID-19 Pandemic and Its Management: Insights from Health Economics

A special issue of International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (ISSN 1660-4601). This special issue belongs to the section "Health Economics".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 December 2021) | Viewed by 14453

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. José-María Abellán

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Applied Economics, Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Murcia, 5 - 30100 Murcia, Spain
Interests: health economics; behavioral economics; experimental economics
Dr. Fernando Sánchez-Martínez

E-Mail Website
Assistant Guest Editor
Department of Applied Economics, Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Murcia, 5 - 30100 - Murcia, Spain
Interests: health economics; experimental economics; public economics
Prof. Dr. Ángel López-Nicolás

E-Mail Website
Assistant Guest Editor
Department of Economics and Finance, Faculty of Business Science, Polytechnic University of Cartagena, 30202 - Cartagena, Spain
Interests: health economics; public economics; policy evaluation

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The Covid-19 pandemic is having huge economic and social impact over the entire world. Regarding costs, the pandemic imposes both direct and indirect costs: The former include healthcare expenditure devoted to the treatment of Covid-19 patients; whereas the latter include, on the one hand, losses of productive capacity due to sick leave, disability, and the death of Covid-19 patients, and, on the other hand, losses associated with non-Covid-19 patients as a consequence of delayed care by overwhelmed healthcare systems. On the outcomes side, the pandemic causes losses of health and life years for both Covid-19 and non-Covid-19 patients. Moreover, there is a second set of impacts that stems from the disruption to economic activity caused by nonpharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) implemented by governments, such as social distancing measures (e.g., school and workplace closures), personal protective measures (e.g., wearing face masks), environmental measures (e.g., surface and object cleaning and ventilation), and travel-related measures (e.g., border closures). With no effective antiviral drugs or vaccines available in the immediate future, prevention of infection by means of NPIs is the main (and perhaps only) available lever to “flatten the curve”, and these NPIs will continue imposing severe costs in the form of forgone economic activity, subsequent business failures, and unemployment. Papers addressing these topics containing both theoretical and empirical analyses are invited for this Special Issue.

Prof. Dr. José-María Abellán
Guest Editor

Dr. Fernando Sánchez-Martínez
Prof. Dr. Ángel López-Nicolás
Assistant Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2500 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • Covid-19
  • Nonpharmaceutical interventions (NPIs)
  • Economic evaluation
  • Behavioral change

Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

23 pages, 1270 KiB  
Article
Behavioral Economics in the Epidemiology of the COVID-19 Pandemic: Theory and Simulations
by Blas A. Marin-Lopez, David Jimenez-Gomez and José-María Abellán-Perpiñán
Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19(15), 9557; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19159557 - 3 Aug 2022
Viewed by 1954
Abstract
We provide a game-theoretical epidemiological model for the COVID-19 pandemic that takes into account that: (1) asymptomatic individuals can be contagious, (2) contagion is behavior-dependent, (3) behavior is determined by a game that depends on beliefs and social interactions, (4) there can be [...] Read more.
We provide a game-theoretical epidemiological model for the COVID-19 pandemic that takes into account that: (1) asymptomatic individuals can be contagious, (2) contagion is behavior-dependent, (3) behavior is determined by a game that depends on beliefs and social interactions, (4) there can be systematic biases in the perceptions and beliefs about the pandemic. We incorporate lockdown decisions by the government into the model. The citizens’ and government’s beliefs can exhibit several biases that we discuss from the point of view of behavioral economics. We provide simulations to understand the effect of lockdown decisions and the possibility of “nudging” citizens in the right direction by improving the accuracy of their beliefs. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The COVID-19 Pandemic and Its Management: Insights from Health Economics)
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11 pages, 4866 KiB  
Article
ICU-Associated Costs during the Fourth Wave of the COVID-19 Pandemic in a Tertiary Hospital in a Low-Vaccinated Eastern European Country
by Mihai Popescu, Oana Mara Ştefan, Mihai Ştefan, Liana Văleanu and Dana Tomescu
Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19(3), 1781; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19031781 - 4 Feb 2022
Cited by 11 | Viewed by 2311
Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic has been associated with a tremendous financial and social impact. The pressure on healthcare systems worldwide has increased with each pandemic wave. The present study assesses the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on healthcare-derived costs of critically ill patients during [...] Read more.
The COVID-19 pandemic has been associated with a tremendous financial and social impact. The pressure on healthcare systems worldwide has increased with each pandemic wave. The present study assesses the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on healthcare-derived costs of critically ill patients during the fourth wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in a tertiary hospital in Romania. We prospectively included patients admitted to a single-centre intensive care unit (ICU) during the fourth wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. Median daily costs were calculated from financial records and divided in three groups: administrative costs, treatment costs and investigation costs. These were then compared to two retrospective cohorts of non-COVID-19 patients admitted to the same ICU during the same time interval in 2020 and 2019. Demographic data and the management of SARS-CoV-2 infection and of associated organ dysfunctions were recorded to identify risk factors for higher costs. Our results show that the COVID-19 pandemic has been associated with a 70.8% increase in total costs compared to previous years. This increase was mainly determined by an increase in medication and medical-device-related costs. We identified the following as risk factors for increased costs: higher degrees of lung involvement, severity of respiratory dysfunction, need for renal replacement therapy and the use of antiviral or immunomodulatory therapy. Costs were higher in patients who had a shorter duration of hospitalization. In conclusion, the COVID-19 pandemic is associated with increased costs for patients, and rapid measures need to be taken to ensure adequate financial support during future pandemic waves, especially in developing countries. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The COVID-19 Pandemic and Its Management: Insights from Health Economics)
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22 pages, 2073 KiB  
Article
The Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on Stock Market: Evidence from Romania
by Mariana Hatmanu and Cristina Cautisanu
Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2021, 18(17), 9315; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18179315 - 3 Sep 2021
Cited by 26 | Viewed by 4419
Abstract
The current health crisis has several socioeconomic influences that could be compared to those experienced during the 2008 economic and financial crisis. Governments around the world are making great efforts to sustain markets as there are signs showing that the health crisis will [...] Read more.
The current health crisis has several socioeconomic influences that could be compared to those experienced during the 2008 economic and financial crisis. Governments around the world are making great efforts to sustain markets as there are signs showing that the health crisis will be followed by an economic crisis. In this study, we aim to investigate the impact of COVID-19 on the Romanian stock market. For this purpose, we considered the influence on the Bucharest Exchange Trading (BET) index of such variables as the number of new cases and the number of new deaths caused by COVID-19, measures taken by authorities, and the international economic context. The collected data covered the period between 11 March 2020 and 30 April 2021. The Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) Bound cointegration test was used to measure the impact of COVID-19 on the stock market. The results showed a significant long-term negative impact of the pandemic on the BET index for Romania, while the European economic context had a positive influence. Therefore, these results could be used by authorities as a good guideline for the efficient management of measures that aim to reduce the negative effects of the healthcare crisis. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The COVID-19 Pandemic and Its Management: Insights from Health Economics)
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13 pages, 1425 KiB  
Article
The Economic Impact of the SARS-COV-2 (COVID-19) Pandemic in Spain
by Jaime Pinilla, Patricia Barber, Laura Vallejo-Torres, Silvia Rodríguez-Mireles, Beatriz G. López-Valcárcel and Luis Serra-Majem
Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2021, 18(9), 4708; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18094708 - 28 Apr 2021
Cited by 41 | Viewed by 4240
Abstract
Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has hit both the Spanish economy and the population’s health hard. The result is an unprecedented economic and social crisis due to uncertainty about the remedy and the socioeconomic effects on people’s lives. Methods: We performed a retrospective analysis [...] Read more.
Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has hit both the Spanish economy and the population’s health hard. The result is an unprecedented economic and social crisis due to uncertainty about the remedy and the socioeconomic effects on people’s lives. Methods: We performed a retrospective analysis of the macroeconomic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 using key indicators of the Spanish economy for the 17 Autonomous Communities (ACs) of the country. National statistics were examined in the search for impacts or anomalies occurring since the beginning of the pandemic. To estimate the strength of the impact on each of the indicators analyzed, we used Bayesian structural time series. We also calculated the correlation between the rate of GDP decline during 2020 and the cumulative incidence of COVID-19 cases per 100,000 inhabitants in the ACs. Results: In 2020, the cumulative impact on the gross domestic product was of −11.41% (95% credible interval: −13.46; −9.29). The indicator for business turnover changed by −9.37% (−12.71; −6.07). The Spanish employment market was strongly affected; our estimates showed a cumulative increase of 11.9% (4.27; 19.45) in the rate of unemployment during 2020. The worst indicators were recorded in the ACs most economically dependent on the services sector. There was no statistical association between the incidence of COVID-19 in 2020 and the fall in GDP in the ACs. Conclusions: Our estimates portray a dramatic situation in Spain, where the COVID-19 crisis has had more serious economic and health consequences than in other European countries. The productive system in Spain is too dependent on sectors vulnerable to the pandemic, and it is necessary to design and implement profound changes through the European Next Generation program. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The COVID-19 Pandemic and Its Management: Insights from Health Economics)
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