1.Evaluation of the COVID-19 Policies in OECD Countries
Weilong ZHANG ; Hyungjun KIM ; Rhayun SONG ; Myonghwa PARK ; Keunyeob OH
Health Policy and Management 2022;32(3):293-303
Background:
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), which has occurred since the end of 2019, has caused tremendous damage not only in terms of disease and death but also in terms of economy. Accordingly, governments implemented health and quarantine policies to prevent the transmission and spread of COVID-19 and minimize economic effects, and implemented various countermeasures to reduce social and economic damage. However, the damage varies from country to country, and there are differences in the response of each government.
Methods:
Using 2020 data from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development countries, the effectiveness of governments’ quarantine and economic policies in response to COVID-19 was calculated, and what factors determine the effectiveness were analyzed. While most of the previous studies analyzed the relationship between the government’s quarantine policy and corona transmission and death, this study is characterized by considering the economic aspect in addition.
Results:
As a result of the analysis, the following results were obtained. First, when economic aspects are not considered, Asian and European countries have similar levels of efficiency, but when economic aspects are taken into account, Asian countries have higher efficiency. Second, population density had a negative effect on the efficiency of each country’s policy, and long-term orientation was found to have an important impact when considering the economic aspect.
Conclusion
We found that the governance index is an important variable influencing the efficiency, which shows that the effectiveness of government policies in response to the coronavirus depends heavily on the trust relationship between the government and the people.