Coronavirus Effects on the Economy of Jordan

Abstract

This paper reports the effects of coronavirus on Jordan's economic growth by using quarterly data for the period (2018/2019 Q1 – 2019/2020 Q4), where the numbers of people who are sick with coronavirus and those that have died from the virus are explanatory variables, and economic growth is an affected variable. The research concentrates on analyzing reviews of theoretical and empirical literature to show the effect of coronavirus on economic growth and explaining this effect in Jordan in this period by using the ARDL technique in Eviews. By using quarterly data for (2018/2019 Q1 – 2019/2020 Q4) at a significance level of 5%, this research demonstrates that the numbers of people who are ill with coronavirus and those that have died from the virus have a weak positive effect and a negative but significant effect on the economic growth of Jordan, respectively. The research also shows a recommendation of limiting the negative effects of coronavirus by reducing the number of deaths via strengthening the health service and opening some economic sectors to boost economic growth in the country.