Sustainable Development in the Shadow of the COVID-19 Pandemic: Economic, Environmental, and Health Perspectives

Dear Colleagues,

The recent coronavirus pandemic has inspired very interesting research on the mutual links between macroeconomic outcomes, environmental management, and infectious diseases [1–4]. As a contribution to this stimulating research, Sustainability is inviting manuscripts related to the consequences of infectious diseases for sustainable development and, in particular, for the related trade off between economic activity and environmental outcomes.  

Though infectious diseases have played a major role in shaping the economic development over the course of economic history, the improvement of public health in the last century has led policymakers and researchers in developed countries to assume that epidemics’ shocks may no longer be a source of concern for the industrialized world. However, as the recent coronavirus pandemic has shown, infectious diseases can and do still play an important role in shaping the development prospects of worldwide economies in the short (and, eventually, also the long) run. Public health policies for the control of communicable diseases (in particular, in the form of social distancing measures and testing–tracing–treating activities) allow containing the spread of infections at the cost of reducing the economic activity, which in turn may be beneficial for the environment. The economic activity is the primary source of environmental degradation and climate change, which in turn may favor the diffusion of communicable (and non-communicable) diseases. Therefore, understanding how macroeconomic outcomes, environmental outcomes, and infectious diseases are mutually related is essential to design public policies favoring a sustainable economic development.

The purpose of this Special Issue is to stimulate, promote, and gather research at the intersection between these issues. We are particularly interested in contrubutions exploring the following topics (but also in works addressing other related topics):

• Short- and long-term macroeconomic consequences of infectious diseases;
• Short- and long-term environmental implications of infectious diseases;
• Mutual relationships between economic, environmental, and health outcomes;
• Effects of public policy on economy, environment, and health;
• Role of public (health, economic, and environmental) policy in promoting a sustainable development;
• Demographic and social aspects of the economy–environment–health relationship

Both theoretical and empirical (current and historical) contributions are welcome for this Special Issue. Works relying on  economic, epidemiological, or environmental management approaches are welcome, and those integrating them from a multi-disciplinary perspective are particularly encouraged. We look forward to your contributions.

References

1. Alvarez, F.E.; Argente, D.; Lippi, F. A simple planning problem for COVID-19 lockdown. American Economic Review: Insights 2020, forthcoming.
2. Brock, W.; Xepapadeas, A. The economy, climate change and infectious diseases: links and policy implications. Environmental and Resource Economics 2020, 76, 811–824.
3. Newbold, S.C.; Finnoff, D.; Thunström, L.; Ashworth, M.; Shogren, J. F. Effects of Physical Distancing to Control COVID-19 on Public Health, the Economy, and the Environment. Environmental and Resource Economics 2020, 76, 705–729.
4. Gori, L.; Manfredi, P.; Marsiglio, S.; Sodini, M. Economic effects of COVID-19 pandemic in a neoclassical growth model. Mimeo: New York, USA, 2020.

Prof. Dr. Simone Marsiglio
Prof. Dr. Luca Gori
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. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly 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 2400 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.

• sustainable development
• economic growth
• environmental quality
• pandemic
• infectious diseases
• public policy
• COVID-19
• pandemics