Epidemic–economic complexity of COVID-19 policies across skill groups and geographies

The COVID-19 pandemic has threatened public health and socio-economic activities across societal groups and geographies. We analyse the complex interplay between epidemic and economic factors using a structural panel vector autoregressive (PVAR) approach for Danish municipalities. Findings indicate that the pandemic shock and associated public health interventions led to significant increases in unemployment rates. Wage compensations reduce regional unemployment through both a direct local effect and indirect spatial spillovers. Decomposing the unemployment rate by skill, we find that the response to an increase in wage compensations is only significant for low-skilled persons and that it is larger in urban compared with rural settings. © 2023 Regional Studies Association.

Risk Characteristics of Catastrophic Health Expenditure in Multidimensional Borderline Poor Households in China.

Background: Ending poverty and realizing common prosperity are the essential requirements for the localization of Marxism in China. The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic in the post-poverty era further aggravates the risk of catastrophic health expenditure for borderline poor households and increases the uncertainty of returning to poverty due to illness, potentially undermining decades of hard-won efforts to eradicate poverty in China. Methods: Based on the latest data released by China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Survey (CHARLS) database, this paper uses the Logit model to empirically explore the risk characteristics of catastrophic health expenditure of multidimensional borderline poor households based on identifying multidimensional borderline poor households. Results: The results show that factors such as family income level, child support, and medical insurance have different impacts on catastrophic health expenditure, and the risk of catastrophic health expenditure of multidimensional borderline poor households is much higher than that of non- multidimensional borderline poor households, and there is a certain difference between urban and rural areas. Discussion: The government should strengthen and improve the social security system and health service system, such as medical insurance, and more resources should be allocated to multidimensional borderline poor households, especially in rural areas.

Spatial-temporal differences of COVID-19 vaccinations in the U.S.

Although the disparities in COVID-19 outcomes have been proved, they have not been explicitly associated with COVID-19 full vaccinations. This paper examines the spatial and temporal patterns of the county-level COVID-19 case rates, fatality rates, and full vaccination rates in the United States from December 24, 2020 through September 30, 2021. Statistical and geospatial analyses show clear temporal and spatial patterns of the progression of COVID-19 outcomes and vaccinations. In the relationship between two time series, the fatality rates series was positively related to past lags of the case rates series. At the same time, case rates series and fatality rates series were negatively related to past lags of the full vaccination rates series. The lag level varies across urban and rural areas. The results of partial correlation, ordinary least squares (OLS) and Geographically Weighted Regression (GWR) also confirmed that the existing COVID-19 infections and different sets of socioeconomic, healthcare access, health conditions, and environmental characteristics were independently associated with COVID-19 vaccinations over time and space. These results empirically identify the geographic health disparities with COVID-19 vaccinations and outcomes and provide the evidentiary basis for targeting pandemic recovery and public health mitigation actions. Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s44212-022-00019-9.

Corrigendum: Understanding multiple dimensions of perceived greenspace accessibility and their effect on subjective well-being during a global pandemic(Front. Sustain. Cities, (2021), 3, (709997), 10.3389/frsc.2021.709997)

In the published article, there was an error. The Methods section incorrectly states the number of interviews analyzed as 74. A correction has beenmade to Section 2.Methods, “2.3 Interview,” Paragraph 1. This sentence previously stated: “The total number of individuals contacted for interviews was 356 and the total number of completed interviews was 74.” The corrected sentence appears below: “The total number of individuals contacted for interviews was 356 and the total number of completed interviews was 72.” The authors apologize for this error and state that this does not change the scientific conclusions of the article in any way. The original article has been updated. © 2022 Maurer, Cook, Yoon, Visnic, Orlove, Culligan and Mailloux.

URBAN-RURAL DISPARITIES IN TRAVEL DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC THE CASE STUDY OF SERBIA

In the past two years, the spread of the COVID-19 has affected large parts of economic and social life globally, especially the tourism industry, due to the restrictions on mobility. The pandemic caused uneven regional consequences. In addition to the differences in the number of infected persons, the mortality rate, and the number of vaccinated between individual countries, disparities between rural and urban areas are particularly evident. Fundamental differences in transport infrastructure and mobility behavior between urban and rural populations suggest differences in risk perception and future travel behavior. However, urban-rural disparities in travel behavior during the COVID-19 pandemic have hardly been explored so far, and this study aims to help fill this gap. The aim of this paper is to investigate the changes and differences in travel risk perceptions and travel behavior of urban and rural residents under the influence of the pandemic. Analyses were conducted based on an online survey data collection in June 2021 among 399 urban and 260 rural residents of Serbia. The results showed differences in travel intentions, travel frequency, and destination choice between urban and rural residents, as well as a preference for domestic tourism and short-haul travel. This study can serve as a guideline for future research on the urban-rural dichotomy regarding travel during the COVID-19 pandemic and as a reference point for comparative studies on urban-rural differences and tourism in different countries and geographical regions.

Exploring the hidden impact of the Covid-19 pandemic: The role of urbanization.

We examine the role of residential environments (urban/rural) in understanding the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the restrictions in nationwide movement on several socio-economic attitudes. We conducted large-scale surveys in four European countries (France, Germany, Spain, and the United Kingdom) before and after nationwide lockdowns were implemented. We investigate how the pandemic affected: (i) economic (economic insecurity), (ii) political (trust in domestic and international institutions), and (iii) social attitudes (loneliness), by controlling for the degree of urbanization, obtained from the geocodes of the survey respondents. Our results show that taking the degree of urbanization into account is not only relevant but is also essential. Compared to urban areas, in rural areas lockdowns led to a greater increase of economic insecurity and to a greater decrease in trust in domestic institutions. We also show that these results are particularly valid for women and households with children.

One year into the pandemic: the impacts of social vulnerability on COVID-19 outcomes and urban-rural differences in the conterminous United States.

This paper first explores spatial distributions and patterns of COVID-19 case rates (cases/100,000 people) and mortality rates (deaths/100,000 people) and their disparities between urban and rural counties in the contiguous US. A county-level social vulnerability index was created using principal component analysis. Social vulnerability components were regressed against both county case and mortality rates. Results suggest that hotspots of case and mortality rates are clustered in Midwest and Upper-Midwest US. We found substantial disparities in case and mortality rates between urban and rural counties. County social vulnerability was positively correlated with both case and mortality rates suggesting counties with higher social vulnerability had higher case and mortality rates. Relationships between social vulnerability components and case and mortality rates vary across the conterminous US. Additionally, counties with increased racial and ethnic minorities, higher percentages of minors, and lower median household income are associated with higher COVID-19 case and mortality rates.