The Economic Linkages of Covid-19 Across Sectors and Regions in the UK

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected different countries and regions differently both in the severity and the number of cases. Therefore, different regions within countries may require different policies to effectively address the Covid-19 epidemic and minimize its socio-economic impact. The project wants to understand these asymmetries and help the design of policies that can be effective in restarting the economy and encouraging recovery and long-run renewal at the regional and sectoral levels. To achieve this goal, I plan to study the spatial dynamics of COVID-19 employing an epidemiological model embedded in a quantitative multi-sector economic spatial framework that includes trade in intermediate products. My research focuses on the regions of the UK and incorporates their main international trade partners such as the surrounding European nations, the US and China. The main hypothesis is that economic links among locations work as vectors for the disease and are, therefore, another very important factor for its spread. Specific questions that I want to answer include the following: How does the infection spread over time and space as a result of economic interactions? How can the pandemic affect inter-sectoral flows and supply-chain links across regions? What can be the socio-economic impacts of alternative policy responses to the pandemic? How can this impact be affected by the industrial composition of regions, the supply-chain links and Brexit? The findings of the project can, for example, help allocate more efficiently the Local Growth Fund across industries by the Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) Network under the current circumstances.