THE ECONOMIC EFFECTS OF COVID-19 MITIGATION POLICIES ON UNEMPLOYMENT AND ECONOMIC POLICY UNCERTAINTY

This paper examines the effects of government COVID-19 mitigation strategies and Economic Policy Uncertainty (EPU) on unemployment-rate over period November 2019 to April 2021 for 16 most severely affected countries. Our specific objectives are threefold: first, examine dynamic relationship between EPU unemployment-rate; second, analyze extent which government’s response affects third, indirectly economic policies through market indicators, such as business consumer confidence indices. We find that increases fluctuations in unemployment countries, while governments’ vaccination drive significantly reduces it. Increases stringency aggravate informal sectors enhances labor inequality.