Cluj-Napoca without Students: An Estimation of the Gapi in the City’s Economy

Abstract

In the new context of COVID-19, the authors assess the economic gap of the absence of students from Cluj-Napoca for one month due to the pandemic quarantine and isolation. The economic gap is presented in terms of estimated expenditures that did not occur, on an average monthly basis. The estimations are based on the survey data carried among Babeș-Bolyai University students that assessed its students’ expenditure for the year of 2015 in Cluj-Napoca. Our results suggest that due to the absence of the student population from Cluj-Napoca, around 33.4 million Euros is the expected amount of loss per month through spending that does not occur.