Series: Occasional Papers. 2115.
Author: Ángel Luis Gómez and Ana del Río.
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Abstract
The economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has been uneven across euro area
countries. Among the factors explaining this are the intensity of the health crisis in each
territory and the severity and duration of the containment measures applied to limit the
spread of the virus, as well as the structural differences between the economies, and, in
particular, their productive specialisation. The empirical analysis presented in this paper
indicates that the variation of the economic impact of the pandemic across euro area
countries is largely explained by the relative importance of the most vulnerable service
industries – those involving greater face-to-face social interaction – and the capacity to
implement teleworking.