RITA C-19 ECONOMY: THE ASSESSMENT OF THE ECONOMIC IMPACTS OF COVID-19 AND THE EFFECTIVENESS OF POLICY MEASURES TO MITIGATE THEM

Client: The Estonian Research Council

Period: 2020-2022

The aim of the project RITA C-19 Economy was to support the state in assessing the social and economic impacts of COVID-19-related restrictions on activities as well the effectiveness of mitigation measures, and with the design of knowledge-based crisis policies.

In this project, Centar’s task was to develop a simulation model to assess the impact of changes in final consumption on the Estonian economy due to the coronavirus or any other shock/government intervention (the RITA-C19 macromodel).

The model allows the effects of specific interventions to be estimated on the basis of the existing economic structure and does not take into account possible structural shifts resulting from the interventions. The model is based on 2020 data. The results are always approximate and are primarily intended for understanding the scale of the impacts.

The study was conducted by a research consortium comprising the University of Tartu, the PRAXIS Centre for Policy Studies and the Estonian Centre for Applied Research CENTAR.

The studies were commissioned and funded by the Estonian Research Council through the program “Strengthening Thematic Research and Development Activities” (RITA), supported by the European Regional Development Fund under Activity 1 “Support for Strategic R&D Activities“.