Developing countries in times of COVID: Comparing inequality impacts and policy responses

Extract

Recalling that pre-Covid economic and sanitary conditions where unfavorable to non-OECD countries (section I), it emphasizes the role played by low-tech and prevention measures in these countries (section II), with the emergence of a “lockdown with human face” (section III). Inequality in the magnitude of recovery packages at both macro and micro levels are pointed out (section IV), as well as within country inequalities effects (section V) based on available data. However large or small today, the distributional consequences of Covid between and within countries could increase in medium-term as past pandemic and recessions have shown (section VI), calling for a new social contract in developing countries – and a sea change in the production and dissemination of data on national income and wealth distribution within countries to start with.

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