Comparing the Effect of the Spanish Flu Pandemic and the COVID-19 Pandemic on the Economy
Loading...
Authors
Neuner, Eli
Issue Date
2020-11-01
Type
Thesis
Language
en_US
Keywords
Alternative Title
Abstract
The point of this project was to compare two pandemics and their effect on the economy. This paper starts off by looking at the viruses themselves and how they spread. Next, it looks at the economy before the pandemic, during, and after. Finally, it compares the two against each other and looks at the overall effect. Both viruses resulted in loss of life but the difference of one hundred years of scientific advancement as well certain aspects of the disease caused the Spanish Flu to be much more deadly. The Spanish Flu caused a slight recession in the short term and the economy quickly rebounded. However, this would not last. There are many factors that attribute to the 1920 recession and the Spanish Flu is one of them. It is believed that GDP dropped 6 to 8 percent worldwide due to the staggering death tolls. In contrast, Covid-19 had a much greater initial effect on the economy. Today, our economy is so much more interdependent and complicated. For example, when the virus first started in China certain manufacturers had to stop production because they got a certain part from Wuhan. This interconnectedness allows us to do so much more but, it also has disadvantages. This virus caused one of the largest stock market prices drops in history. It also caused a 31.4 percent decrease in GDP in the second quarter of 2020. Both viruses undoubtedly cause hardship and took many lives but, the coronavirus had a larger immediate impact.
Description
41 p.
Citation
Publisher
License
U.S. copyright laws protect this material. Commercial use or distribution of this material is not permitted without prior written permission of the copyright holder.