The impact of the COVID‐19 pandemic on regional inequalities in Romania. Spotlight on unemployment and health conditions

Abstract

AbstractFor a long time, inequalities have existed across the population and between different communities and groups. Although regional inequality is a topic of interest among scholars and policy makers, only recently have they been increasingly investigated at local territorial units. The economic shock related to the COVID‐19 crisis, which resulted from the lockdown and significant decline in economic activity in many sectors, has affected all regions, but not in the same way or with a similar intensity. Assessing some regional indicators available in the first period of the ongoing COVID‐19 crisis depicting the quality of life, it is becoming evident that new regional disparities emerge and interact with many of the pre‐existing inequalities. This paper aims to provide new insights on the impact of the COVID‐19 pandemic on inequalities across two dimensions, namely employment and health conditions, with relevance for the standard of living. By investigating past and current evolutions of some indicators, as reflected at the NUTS3 territorial level in Romania and the use of spatial analysis, our study shows that new fissures generated by the health crisis have deepened the existing inequalities at the regional level along various key dimensions such as gender, age, education, and rural–urban and local geography. This empirical study, considering traditional measurements of inequality and relevant spatial investigation, evaluates the intensity of inequalities across all Romanian counties.