COVID-19 and the role of inequality in French regional departments
Open accessAbstract
In this paper, we examine the variation in the outbreak of COVID-19 across departments in continental France. We use information on the cumulated number of deaths, discharged patients and infections from COVID-19 at the department level, and study how these relate to income inequality, controlling for other factors. We find that unfortunately, inequality kills: departments with higher income inequality face more deaths, more discharged (gravely ill) patients and more infections. While other papers have studied the impact of the level of income on the severity of COVID-19, we find that it is in fact the dispersion across incomes within the same department that drives the results. Our results suggest that individuals in relatively more precarious conditions deserve dedicated policies, to avoid that temporary shocks such as COVID-19 lead to permanent increases in inequality.
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The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in an economic recession, a contraction in foreign trade and international investment, and a reduction in fiscal sources.
“the COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in an economic recession, a contraction in foreign trade and international investment, and a reduction in fiscal sources (Crossley et al., 2021; Ginsburgh et al., 2021; Wildman, 2021)”
From COVID-19 pandemic and adolescent mental health in China: Micro evidence and socioeconomic mechanisms (2022) · cites this paper as Ginsburgh et al., 2021
The Introduction says the pandemic affects economic ecosystems and refers to its already massive economic burden. It does not establish an economic recession or report contractions in foreign trade, international investment, or fiscal sources; searches for those terms found no supporting passage. (LLM, conf=0.83)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredThe shock of the COVID-19 pandemic may exacerbate social inequalities.
“Third, in terms of theoretical contributions, from the perspective of adolescent mental health loss, our research implies that the shock of the COVID-19 pandemic may exacerbate social inequalities.”
From COVID-19 pandemic and adolescent mental health in China: Micro evidence and socioeconomic mechanisms (2022) · cites this paper as Ginsburgh et al., 2021
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References 10 · Cited by 42
Research works printed but not linked: 2
- [5]Huffpost.: Déconfiner les départements rouges? De la ‘pure folie’ pour le président du Bas-Rhin, Le HuffPost, May 8, 2020 (2020)
- [8]Pidd, H., Barr, C., Mohdin, A.: Calls for health funding to be prioritised as poor bear brunt of COVID-19. The Guardian, May 1, 2020 (2020)
- Authors
- Ginsburgh, V., Magerman, G., & Natali, I.
- Affiliations
- Université Libre de Bruxelles (BE)
- Corresponding author
- Magerman, Glenn
- Venue
- The European Journal of Health Economics
- Published
- 2021-01-02
- Volume
- 22
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 311-327
- ISSN
- 1439-3972 (ISSN-L)
- 1618-7598
- 1618-7601
- PMC
- PMC7776317
- OpenAlex
- W3117070164
- Semantic Scholar
- c06681a9c37690811466624a8985faccd1076bc7
- Cited by
- 42
- References
- 10
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 3 · 2024: 2 · 2023: 10 · 2022: 18 · 2021: 7
- FWCI
- 3.58
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- The European Journal of Health Economics (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- LIDAM Reprints CORE (submittedVersion)
- RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
- Digital Access to Libraries (Université catholique de Louvain (UCL), l'Université de Namur (UNamur) and the Université Saint-Louis (USL-B)) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Dépôt institutionnel de l'Université libre de Bruxelles (Université Libre de Bruxelles) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Funders
- Fonds De La Recherche Scientifique - FNRS (40003508)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Mathematics › Modeling and Simulation › COVID-19 epidemiological studies
- Social Sciences › Health › Health disparities and outcomes
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Income, Poverty, and Inequality
- Keywords
- COVID-19 pandemic, income inequality, regional disparities, COVID-19 mortality, hospital discharge, COVID-19 infection, income dispersion, socioeconomic determinants of health, French departments
- MeSH terms
- COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2, France, Humans, Income, Pneumonia, Viral, Vulnerable Populations, Health Status Disparities, Pandemics
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