The Political Economy of the Next Pandemic

Abstract

While the pandemic and recovery unfold in real time, this article investigates some of the major themes on preparations for the next pandemic. Humanity cannot rely on modern medicine to beat the next ‘disease X’ and the world cannot afford the extortionate health and economic policy interventions during the COVID-19 pandemic again. From the COVID-19 pandemic we learned that the international economic organizations suffered from disaster myopia and that the self-image of the advanced economies is distorted. It also has become apparent that ‘beggar-thy-neighbor’ health care was generally practiced while global health care should have been the norm. A discussion on the related issues of rationing, triage and scarcity of health care during a pandemic is urgently needed. All in all, a major global investment project is necessary to reduce the vulnerability to and impact of pandemics. As inequalities to a large extent determine pandemic vulnerability and adjustment of SDGs is necessary.

An Update on World Trade during the COVID-19 Episode

“…The vaccines and the scarcity of medical equipment have also brought to the fore export restrictions and intellectual property rights restrictions imposed by the advanced economies (Baldwin and Evenett, 2021;van Bergeijk 2022). While such restrictions may seem logical to health care policy makers under pressure of an unfolding pandemic such policies do not add value, at most buy very limited time and often are counterproductive.…”

The Impact of Covid-19 on Household Welfare in the Comoros: The Experience of a Small Island Developing State

“…These interventions are detrimental to socio-economic activities at the macro level and at the micro-level (Dunford et al, 2020). The political economy evaluation of the bestpossible curtailment measures or responses at the country and global levels has attracted controversial and ongoing debates (Van, 2021). The controversy around curtailment measures revolves around the trade-off between saving lives and prioritizing the economy.…”

Public Finance in the V4 During the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Magic Triangle of Public Finances

“…It is a very current topic, with significant scientific potential and possible benefits. There are many approaches to solving this issue of public budgets and public finances, from tracking partial data (Ávalos, 2021;Domokos, 2021;Foremny, Sorribas-Navarro, Vall Castelló, 2020;Muggenthaler, Schroth, Sun, 2021) through relative indicators (Nemec, Špaček, 2020;Cantó et al, 2022;Van Bergeijk, 2022;Tesche, 2022) to selected segments of public finances and levels of public budgets (Zahariev et al, 2021;Koreňová, 2022;Gros, 2021;Carnazza, Liberati, 2021;Saputra, 2021;Švikruha, Richvalský, 2020). However, none of the established approaches provide a more comprehensive picture of the state of public finances.…”