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COVID-19 has created massive disruption around the world. Its health ramifications are enormous but only one part of the disease’s impact, as this informative compendium of analyses from a multinational group of researchers shows. The financial distress from economic shutdowns is staggering, but the lockdown did generate a positive externality: a large-scale reduction in fossil fuel consumption. Executives, business owners and policy experts will find this a comprehensive report on the overall effects of the pandemic.

Summary

Short-term COVID-19 economic losses were vast.

National leaders responded to the COVID-19 pandemic by restricting travel abroad, issuing shelter-in-place directives, and closing factories and office buildings to slow the spread of the virus. Trade and supply chain disruptions ensued, with the transportation and tourism industries, among others, sustaining massive damage. Global GDP declined, as did employment and household income. 

The “total consumption loss” from both direct and spillover effects from March 2020 through May 2020 amounted to $3.8 trillion, some 4.2% of global GDP. Job losses of some 147 million affected ...

About the Authors

Manfred Lenzen et al. are researchers at universities and state agencies in Australia, China, Ecuador, Indonesia, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States.