PIDE COVID-19 Bulletin: no. 21 : Pandemic-induced school closure and inequalities in homeschooling : implications for the long-run human capital accumulation in Pakistan

Abstract

"The novel COVID-19 has created unprecedented effects on the world economy. Compared to the -0.01 per cent decline in the year on year real GDP growth during the global financial crisis 2008-09, the COVID-19 induced “Great Lockdown” put a dint of -3.0 per cent on the global economy (Währungsfonds, 2020). This makes the current pandemic the most devastating recession in world history after the Great Depression of the 1930s. Apart from these physical impacts of the current pandemic, one can expect implications of COVID-19 on social and human capital accumulations in both advanced and developing world. Which will, in turn, affect the long-run growth trajectory of the world. Literature shows us the sizeable impact each pandemic and epidemic, historically, had on human behaviour and human capital formation. For example, Percoco (2016) shows the negative impact of the 1918-19 Spanish Flu on human capital accumulation in the Italian regions. In a similar study, Archibong et al. (2020) show that the gender gap in education attainment widened because of the 1986 meningitis epidemic in Niger. Furthermore, Dauda (2018) shows that the HIV/AIDS epidemic negatively impacted human capital in 11 West African countries. Similarly, Aassve et al., (2020), by originating lessons from 1918-19 Spanish Flu, discuss the possible effects COVID-19 on social capital and human behaviour."