IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/lsprsc/v16y2023i1d10.1007_s12076-023-00340-0.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Local and regional factors of spatial differentiation of the excess mortality related to the COVID-19 pandemic in Romania

Author

Listed:
  • Alexandru Bănică

    (Alexandru Ioan Cuza” University of Iași
    Romanian Academy, Iași Branch)

  • Ionel Muntele

    (Alexandru Ioan Cuza” University of Iași
    Romanian Academy, Iași Branch)

Abstract

COVID-19 revealed some major weaknesses and threats that are related to the level of territorial development. In Romania, the manifestation and the impact of the pandemic were not homogenous, which was influenced, to a large extent, by a diversity of sociodemographic, economic, and environmental/geographic factors. The paper is an exploratory analysis focused on selecting and integrating multiple indicators that could explain the spatial differentiation of COVID-19-related excess mortality (EXCMORT) in 2020 and 2021. These indicators include, among others, health infrastructure, population density and mobility, health services, education, the ageing population and distance to the closest urban center. We analyzed the data from local (LAU2) and county level (NUTS3) by applying multiple linear regression and geographically weighted regression models. The results show that mobility and lower social distancing were far more critical factors for higher mortality than the intrinsic vulnerability of the population, at least in the first two years of COVID-19. However, the highly differentiated patterns and specificities of different areas of Romania resulting from the modelling of EXCMORT factors drive to the conclusion that the decision-making approaches should be place-specific in order to have more efficiency in case of pandemics.

Suggested Citation

  • Alexandru Bănică & Ionel Muntele, 2023. "Local and regional factors of spatial differentiation of the excess mortality related to the COVID-19 pandemic in Romania," Letters in Spatial and Resource Sciences, Springer, vol. 16(1), pages 1-21, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:lsprsc:v:16:y:2023:i:1:d:10.1007_s12076-023-00340-0
    DOI: 10.1007/s12076-023-00340-0
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s12076-023-00340-0
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s12076-023-00340-0?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
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Andrés Rodríguez‐Pose & Chiara Burlina, 2021. "Institutions and the uneven geography of the first wave of the COVID‐19 pandemic," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 61(4), pages 728-752, September.
    2. Marcos Díaz Ramírez & Paolo Veneri & Alexander C. Lembcke, 2022. "Where did it hit harder? Understanding the geography of excess mortality during the COVID‐19 pandemic," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 62(3), pages 889-908, June.
    3. Aengus Collins & Marie-Valentine Florin & Ortwin Renn, 2020. "COVID-19 risk governance: drivers, responses and lessons to be learned," Journal of Risk Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 23(7-8), pages 1073-1082, August.
    4. Philip McCann & Raquel Ortega-Argilés & Pei-Yu Yuan, 2022. "The Covid-19 shock in European regions," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 56(7), pages 1142-1160, July.
    5. Irlacher Michael & Koch Michael, 2021. "Working from Home, Wages, and Regional Inequality in the Light of COVID-19," Journal of Economics and Statistics (Jahrbuecher fuer Nationaloekonomie und Statistik), De Gruyter, vol. 241(3), pages 373-404, June.
    6. Klaus Desmet & Romain Wacziarg, 2020. "Understanding Spatial Variation in COVID-19 across the United States," NBER Working Papers 27329, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    7. Purhadi & Sutikno & Sarni Maniar Berliana & Dewi Indra Setiawan, 2021. "Geographically weighted bivariate generalized Poisson regression: application to infant and maternal mortality data," Letters in Spatial and Resource Sciences, Springer, vol. 14(1), pages 79-99, April.
    8. Brandily, Paul & Brébion, Clément & Briole, Simon & Khoury, Laura, 2021. "A poorly understood disease? The impact of COVID-19 on the income gradient in mortality over the course of the pandemic," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 140(C).
    9. Ugofilippo Basellini & Carlo Giovanni Camarda, 2020. "Modelling COVID-19 mortality at the regional level in Italy," Working Papers axq0sudakgkzhr-blecv, French Institute for Demographic Studies.
    10. Ehlert, Andree, 2021. "The socio-economic determinants of COVID-19: A spatial analysis of German county level data," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    11. Irina Georgieva & Tella Lantta & Jakub Lickiewicz & Jaroslav Pekara & Sofia Wikman & Marina Loseviča & Bevinahalli Nanjegowda Raveesh & Adriana Mihai & Peter Lepping, 2021. "Perceived Effectiveness, Restrictiveness, and Compliance with Containment Measures against the Covid-19 Pandemic: An International Comparative Study in 11 Countries," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(7), pages 1-15, April.
    12. Tamás Krisztin & Philipp Piribauer & Michael Wögerer, 2020. "The spatial econometrics of the coronavirus pandemic," Letters in Spatial and Resource Sciences, Springer, vol. 13(3), pages 209-218, December.
    13. Adam Rose & Terrie Walmsley & Dan Wei, 2021. "Spatial transmission of the economic impacts of COVID-19 through international trade," Letters in Spatial and Resource Sciences, Springer, vol. 14(2), pages 169-196, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Badi H. Baltagi & Ying Deng & Jing Li & Zhenlin Yang, 2023. "Cities in a pandemic: Evidence from China," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 63(2), pages 379-408, March.
    2. Massimiliano Crisci & Federico Benassi & Hamidreza Rabiei-Dastjerdi & Gavin McArdle, 2022. "Spatio-temporal variations and contextual factors of the supply of Airbnb in Rome. An initial investigation," Letters in Spatial and Resource Sciences, Springer, vol. 15(2), pages 237-253, August.
    3. 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).
    4. Albani, Viviana & Welsh, Claire E. & Brown, Heather & Matthews, Fiona E. & Bambra, Clare, 2022. "Explaining the deprivation gap in COVID-19 mortality rates: A decomposition analysis of geographical inequalities in England," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 311(C).
    5. Carlo Corradini & Jesse Matheson & Enrico Vanino, 2024. "Neighbourhood labour structure, lockdown policies, and the uneven spread of COVID‐19: within‐city evidence from England," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 91(363), pages 944-979, July.
    6. Rafael González‐Val & Fernando Sanz‐Gracia, 2022. "Urbanization and COVID‐19 incidence: A cross‐country investigation," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 101(2), pages 399-415, April.
    7. Amjad Muhammad Khan & Hogeun Park & Mark Roberts & Putu Sanjiwacika Wibisana, 2023. "Lights out: The economic impacts of Covid‐19 on cities globally," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 63(5), pages 1251-1283, November.
    8. Jonathan Muringani & Rune Dahl Fitjar & Andrés Rodríguez-Pose, 2024. "Political trust and economic development in European regions," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 73(4), pages 2059-2089, December.
    9. Ilan Noy & Toshihiro Okubo & Eric Strobl, 2023. "The Japanese textile sector and the influenza pandemic of 1918–1920," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 63(5), pages 1192-1227, November.
    10. Robert J. R. Elliott & Ingmar Schumacher & Cees Withagen, 2020. "Suggestions for a Covid-19 Post-Pandemic Research Agenda in Environmental Economics," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 76(4), pages 1187-1213, August.
    11. Brandily, Paul & Brébion, Clément & Briole, Simon & Khoury, Laura, 2021. "A poorly understood disease? The impact of COVID-19 on the income gradient in mortality over the course of the pandemic," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 140(C).
    12. Andrea Laurent-Simpson, 2023. "COVID-19 and Masking Disparities: Qualitative Analysis of Trust on the CDC’s Facebook Page," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(12), pages 1-18, June.
    13. Javier Barbero & Ernesto Rodríguez-Crespo, 2022. "Technological, institutional, and geographical peripheries: regional development and risk of poverty in the European regions," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 69(2), pages 311-332, October.
    14. Andrés Rodríguez‐Pose & Chiara Burlina, 2021. "Institutions and the uneven geography of the first wave of the COVID‐19 pandemic," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 61(4), pages 728-752, September.
    15. Alfano, Vincenzo, 2024. "Unlocking the importance of perceived governance: The impact on COVID-19 in NUTS-2 European regions," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 343(C).
    16. Naimoli, Antonio, 2022. "Modelling the persistence of Covid-19 positivity rate in Italy," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 82(PA).
    17. Szymon Florek & Magdalena Piegza & Paweł Dębski & Piotr Gorczyca & Robert Pudlo, 2022. "The Influence of Sociodemographic Factors on Symptoms of Anxiety, the Level of Aggression and Alcohol Consumption in the Time of the COVID-19 Pandemic among Polish Respondents," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(12), pages 1-12, June.
    18. Bertocchi, Graziella & Dimico, Arcangelo, 2020. "COVID-19, Race, and Redlining," GLO Discussion Paper Series 603, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    19. Luca, Davide & Özgüzel, Cem & Wei, Zhiwu, 2024. "The spatially uneven diffusion of remote jobs in Europe," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 122651, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    20. Tuchen, Stefan & Nazemi, Mohsen & Ghelfi-Waechter, Signe Maria & Kim, Euiyoung & Hofer, Franziska & Chen, Ching-Fu & Arora, Mohit & Santema, Sicco & Blessing, Lucienne, 2023. "Experiences from the international frontlines: An exploration of the perceptions of airport employees during the COVID-19 pandemic," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 109(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Coronavirus; Excess mortality; Drivers; MLR; GWR;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C21 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Single Equation Models; Single Variables - - - Cross-Sectional Models; Spatial Models; Treatment Effect Models
    • I12 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Health Behavior
    • I31 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - General Welfare, Well-Being
    • J10 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - General
    • Q54 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Climate; Natural Disasters and their Management; Global Warming

    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:spr:lsprsc:v:16:y:2023:i:1:d:10.1007_s12076-023-00340-0. 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: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com/ .

    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.