Control of the first wave of COVID-19: Some economic freedom-related success factors

Control of the first wave of COVID-19: Some economic freedom-related success factors

Abstract: This research aims to study some economic freedom-related factors with explanatory power on the countries’ success in controlling the first wave of COVID-19. Our selected factors include the economic, business, labour, monetary, trade, investment, financial, press, human, and personal freedom indexes. Our dependent variables include the government’s daily average stringency index, the outbreak response time, the daily average of cases per million, the daily average of deaths per million, and the daily average of COVID-19 tests per thousand. We find that countries with superior degrees of freedom suffered a more severe impact of the outbreak as confirmed by the highest daily average of cases and deaths per million. This severe impact happened while governments had a controllable response to the outbreak as verified by the lowest daily average stringency index. However, these countries were more effective at controlling the first wave of COVID-19 as measured by the shorter outbreak response time and a higher daily average of COVID-19 tests per thousand.