IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/ijhplm/v36y2021i5p1575-1588.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The density paradox: Are densely‐populated regions more vulnerable to Covid‐19?

Author

Listed:
  • Imad A. Moosa
  • Ibrahim N. Khatatbeh

Abstract

The “density paradox” refers to the observation that some highly populated cities and countries have recorded a smaller number of Covid‐19 cases than regions that are sparsely populated. We present empirical evidence on the role played by population density in spreading the coronavirus, based on cross‐sectional data covering 172 countries (obtained from several sources, including the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, the World Bank and the Center for Health Security). The results, obtained by using the techniques of extreme bounds analysis (EBA) and variable addition tests, show that population density has a significantly positive effect on the number of cases but not the number of deaths, as the latter is better explained by measures of preparedness. Plausible explanations are presented for the results to conclude that the “density paradox” is not really a paradox. This paper makes a contribution by shedding more light on a frequently debated issue by using a completely different, and more robust, statistical techniques and by providing results that may be helpful for health and urban planners.

Suggested Citation

  • Imad A. Moosa & Ibrahim N. Khatatbeh, 2021. "The density paradox: Are densely‐populated regions more vulnerable to Covid‐19?," International Journal of Health Planning and Management, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 36(5), pages 1575-1588, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:ijhplm:v:36:y:2021:i:5:p:1575-1588
    DOI: 10.1002/hpm.3189
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1002/hpm.3189
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1002/hpm.3189?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Leamer, Edward E, 1983. "Let's Take the Con Out of Econometrics," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 73(1), pages 31-43, March.
    2. Samuel Meng, 2019. "Patentism Replacing Capitalism," Springer Books, Springer, number 978-3-030-12247-8, December.
    3. Li, Ruiqi & Richmond, Peter & Roehner, Bertrand M., 2018. "Effect of population density on epidemics," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 510(C), pages 713-724.
    4. Imad A. Moosa, 2020. "Controversies in Economics and Finance," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 19689.
    5. Leamer, Edward E, 1985. "Sensitivity Analyses Would Help," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 75(3), pages 308-313, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Caria, Andrea & Delogu, Marco & Meleddu, Marta & Sotgiu, Giovanni, 2024. "People inflows as a pandemic trigger: Evidence from a quasi-experimental study," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 52(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Anne Musson & Damien Rousselière, 2020. "Exploring the effect of crisis on cooperatives: a Bayesian performance analysis of French craftsmen cooperatives," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 52(25), pages 2657-2678, May.
    2. Sai Ding & John Knight, 2011. "Why has China Grown So Fast? The Role of Physical and Human Capital Formation," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 73(2), pages 141-174, April.
    3. Castle Jennifer L. & Doornik Jurgen A & Hendry David F., 2011. "Evaluating Automatic Model Selection," Journal of Time Series Econometrics, De Gruyter, vol. 3(1), pages 1-33, February.
    4. R Burger & S du Plessis, 2011. "Examining the Robustness of Competing Explanations of Slow Growth in African Countries," Studies in Economics and Econometrics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 35(3), pages 21-47, December.
    5. Carmen Fernandez & Eduardo Ley & Mark F. J. Steel, 2001. "Model uncertainty in cross-country growth regressions," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 16(5), pages 563-576.
    6. Martin Gassebner & Jerg Gutmann & Stefan Voigt, 2016. "When to expect a coup d’état? An extreme bounds analysis of coup determinants," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 169(3), pages 293-313, December.
    7. James Alm & Janet Rogers, 2011. "Do State Fiscal Policies Affect State Economic Growth?," Public Finance Review, , vol. 39(4), pages 483-526, July.
    8. Boubaker, Sabri & Essaddam, Naceur & Nguyen, Duc Khuong & Saadi, Samir, 2017. "On the robustness of week-day effect to error distributional assumption: International evidence," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 114-130.
    9. Klump, R. & Prüfer, P., 2006. "Prioritizing Policies for Pro-Poor Growth : Applying Bayesian Model Averaging to Vietnam," Other publications TiSEM dc14add6-f581-4eea-92dd-3, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    10. Garett Jones, 2005. "IQ in the Ramsey Model: A Naive Calibration," Development and Comp Systems 0507004, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    11. Joshua D. Angrist & Jörn-Steffen Pischke, 2010. "The Credibility Revolution in Empirical Economics: How Better Research Design Is Taking the Con out of Econometrics," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 24(2), pages 3-30, Spring.
    12. Yongfu Huang, 2005. "What determines financial development?," Bristol Economics Discussion Papers 05/580, School of Economics, University of Bristol, UK.
    13. Mark F. J. Steel, 2020. "Model Averaging and Its Use in Economics," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 58(3), pages 644-719, September.
    14. Xavier Sala-I-Martin & Gernot Doppelhofer & Ronald I. Miller, 2004. "Determinants of Long-Term Growth: A Bayesian Averaging of Classical Estimates (BACE) Approach," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 94(4), pages 813-835, September.
    15. Oasis Kodila-Tedika & Simplice Asongu & Florentin Azia-Dimbu, 2016. "The Sensitive Nature of Social Trust to Intelligence," Working Papers of the African Governance and Development Institute. 16/005, African Governance and Development Institute..
    16. Coulibaly, Issiaka & Gnimassoun, Blaise, 2013. "Optimality of a monetary union: New evidence from exchange rate misalignments in West Africa," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 32(C), pages 463-482.
    17. John Knight & Sai Ding, 2008. "Why has China Grown so Fast? The Role of Structural Change," Economics Series Working Papers 415, University of Oxford, Department of Economics.
    18. Jim Woodward, 2006. "Some varieties of robustness," Journal of Economic Methodology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 13(2), pages 219-240.
    19. Holderness, Clifford G., 2017. "Culture and the ownership concentration of public corporations around the world," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 469-486.
    20. Chrétien, Stéphane & Coggins, Frank, 2009. "Election outcomes and financial market returns in Canada," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 20(1), pages 1-23, March.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:ijhplm:v:36:y:2021:i:5:p:1575-1588. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0749-6753 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.