POLICY ACTIONS DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC AND ECONOMIC IMPACT

ABSTRACT

The Covid-19 pandemic broke out by the beginning of 2020 and became one of the most relevant political, economic and social challenges at global level. From the beginning there was a wide consensus between scholars and experts from various fields of medical expertise (biomedicine, genetics, etc.) that the transport vehicle of the virus were the vital economic branches of world economies business environment, trade, transports and tourism. In fact, now when the virus has entered apparently in Europe and in most parts of the world endemicity, it still has a high degree of uncertainty, and continues to have significant impact on economies worsened by the ongoing geopolitical crisis. While most papers are dedicated to the so-called 'engine economies' of the world, and in particular of the European Union, we intend to present how policy actions have impacted the economy of developing economies of Central and Eastern Europe, with emphasis on the national Romanian perspective. The labor market is where the lingering effects are best seen, as it is the meeting point for employees from both public and private sector, and actually one of the main targets of the various policy actions and measures. We use a framework based on the strategic and operational level, respectively where policy-decisions are made regarding various Covid-19 outspread prevention measures, and the operational level - where the effects are identified, and possible improvements proposed. The results show that the risk of divergence and increasing disparities is higher, in particular for the New Member-States, and that next to economic policy decisions, the way in which non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPI) influenced strongly the outcomes in various economic sectors. At the same time, the economies that succeeded in making use of digitalized means in various economic, social and cultural sectors had better overall results in overcoming the impact of the pandemic.