Question

COVID19 epidemic is impacting different demographics in varying magnitudes

Discuss in few sentences the ramifications to population pyramids of advanced economies such as Japan and Western Europe if the epidemic is prolonged and explain what a population pyramid describes.

Explain two impacts of the increased mortality rate to human capital in line with our discussion in class.

Explain why developed nations are hardest hit

Answer 1

1) The population pyramid is a graphical representation of the age distribution pattern across an economy. Males are often represented on the left side of the pyramid whereas women are represented on the right side.

A pyramid represents the average age of a country as it helps in determining how many people are present in the country over a specific age range for example 10-20, 20-30 etc.

Due to the Corona Virus situation across the countries, it is estimated that in countries such as Japan and Western Europe, the number of infected patients would be higher in adults and grownups than in young people. Young people would mostly face flu like symptoms whereas death rates for older people would be relatively higher.

As a result of mass deaths for older people, the pyramid structure would change wherein more people would be concentrated in the younger ages whereas older people would decline if the disease were to continue.

2)

If a country has significantly higher death rates or mortality rates, in that case the overall human capital is hit hard. This is because as more people die, the availability of skill and experience in the country diminishes. With a decline in skill, the prices which the labour force would fetch as compared to the industrial markets decline rapidly.

Thus, we can conclude that an increase in mortality rate has two negative effects in terms of the amount of people available and their quality, and the amounts of money which they are paid to work in the country.

3)

The top reason why, developed countries are the worst hit is the fact that these countries have been built on the service industry which aims at providing experience to the customer instead of an actual product. These countries are not dependent on agriculture or primary goods as their exports but rather focus more on providing better facilities to the end consumer.

The resultant of a lock down is the fact that the demand for services is negligible and only essential goods and medical equipment are allowed for sale. Countries such as China and India have taken the lead in manufacturing of food and raw material as well as medical equipment whereas developed countries were more organized in design, product development, providing facilities such as insurance, banking etc.

Therefore, the decline in developed countries is more primarily because of the nature of the goods and services which they deal in.

Please feel free to ask your doubts in the comments section.