Economic Impacts of Covid-19 in the South of Scotland: Emerging Evidence and Future Prospects

Abstract

While the COVID-19 pandemic is first and foremost a public health crisis, attention has increasingly turned to the associated economic costs arising from the pandemic itself and the responses to it, both immediately and in the longer term. While a range of indicators have been used to quantify the aggregate economic impacts for the UK and Scotland, there are so far relatively few sources of data that allow us to say what has been happening at a more local level. In this new paper, David Clelland sets out some of the evidence that is currently available for how the pandemic has affected the South of Scotland (the local authority areas of Dumfries and Galloway and the Scottish Borders), and for the region’s economic prospects as we begin to emerge from the initial response phase into one of potential recovery. As a mostly rural region where the sectoral mix, business base and demographics are different from those of Scotland’s city regions, it could be expected that the challenges posed by COVID-19 in the South will also be distinctive. At this stage, however, there remains a great deal of uncertainty about the impacts of the crisis, how different places will be affected, and the outlook. The paper explores employment, business, other indicators and draws conclusions about what the future might bring.

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https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/

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https://eprints.gla.ac.uk/288390/