Inter‐country distancing, globalisation and the coronavirus pandemic

• Author: Gokhan Karabulut,Asli Cansin Doker,Mehmet Huseyin Bilgin,Klaus F. Zimmermann
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/twec.12969
• Date: 01 June 2020
• Published date: 01 June 2020

1484

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World Econ. 2020;43:1484–1498.

wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/twec

DOI: 10.1111/twec.12969

ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Inter-country distancing, globalisation and the

coronavirus pandemic

Klaus F.Zimmermann1

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GokhanKarabulut2

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Mehmet HuseyinBilgin3

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Asli CansinDoker4

1Global Labor Organization, and Centre for Economic Policy Research, UNU-MERIT & Maastricht University, Maastricht,

The Netherlands

2GLO, Istanbul University, Istanbul, Turkey

3GLO, Istanbul Medeniyet University, Istanbul, Turkey

4GLO, Erzincan Binali Yildirim University, Erzincan, Turkey

KEYWORDS

coronavirus, COVID-19, globalisation, inter-country distancing, pandemic

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INTRODUCTION

In response to the coronavirus pandemic against which there is currently no proven vaccine or drug

treatment, human mobility between and within countries in general has been stopped on a temporary

basis since April 2020. The lockdown of economies and suspension of free mobility were justified

by a rapid transmission of the virus through the human factor of globalisation, namely personal in-

teractions. Social distancing at the individual level was complemented by inter-country distancing.

The development is marked by a number of disturbing factors: global termination of travel mostly via

national policy responses; attacks on global organisations such as the World Health Organization; the

conflict between states over pharmaceutical tools and the support of medical research companies; and

the de facto absence of leadership from international organisations like the European Union or G20

in response to this crisis.

Powerful diseases can spread globally and generate pandemics that can end up seriously affecting

almost all countries. It is important to understand the disease transition to be able to improve defence

mechanisms, strengthen healthcare sectors, find a vaccine and intercept infection channels even if

transmission cannot be stopped completely.

Globalisation is the final result of the division of work that creates welfare, but it might potentially

facilitate the spread of infection. The process can have an impact on the spread of disease by many dif-

ferent channels including international trade, international tourism, international students, migration

This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction

in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

© 2020 The Authors. The World Economy published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd