ANALYSIS OF THE TRANSFORMATION OF THE CORONA PANDEMIC INTO ECONOMIC DEPRESSION IN OECD COUNTRIES

Abstract

The Corona Pandemic turned into a major economic depression within a very short period of time after its onset. There were simultaneous lockdowns all over the world and billions of people were unable to leave their homes. During the lockdown, employees could not go to work and students could not go to school. Life almost stopped all over the world at a level unprecedented in the recent past. This study aims to analyze the transformation of the pandemic, which started as a health crisis, into a major economic depression in a short time. OECD countries, of which Turkey is a member, were taken as the universe of analysis. The two main reasons for taking OECD countries as a basis are that Turkey is also a member of this organization and most of the OECD countries are developed countries. Therefore, the economic volumes of OECD member countries represent a large part of the world economy. T Test and Mann Whitney U Difference Tests were used as analysis methods in the study. Thus, it was tested whether there was a statistically significant difference between the change in 2018-2019, which represents the period just before the pandemic, and the change in 2019-2020, when the first and severe effects of the pandemic were observed. The findings can be summarized as follows: 1) Both the GDP as a whole and the growth rates by sectors experienced a significant decline during the pandemic period compared to the pre-pandemic period. There is a statistically significant difference between the two periods except for agriculture and finance. 2) According to the annual change in working hours, there has been a decline in the pandemic period compared to the pre-pandemic period. This decrease in all lines of activity except mining and public sector is statistically confirmed as a difference between the two periods. 3) According to the change in foreign trade compared to the previous year, there was a decrease in the pandemic period compared to the pre-pandemic period. This decrease is confirmed by the statistically significant difference between the two periods. 4) The change in public expenditures increased during the pandemic period compared to the pre-pandemic period. This increase is also supported by the statistical difference between the two periods.