CALL FOR PAPERS | AEPP SPECIAL ISSUE

CALL FOR PAPERS
The editors of the Applied Economics Perspectives and Policy (AEPP) invite authors to submit abstracts for a special issue on COVID-19 in South Asia which will focus on forward-looking policy-relevant applied work on a broad set of themes relevant to the AEPP, outlining the impacts of the pandemic in the region and lessons learnt for similar shocks going forward.

THE CONTEXT
The COVID-19 pandemic has dominated policy discourse since the first quarter of 2020, when the health and economic impacts of the virus began to affect countries across the globe. In several developing countries, COVID-19 and associated public policies wiped out hard-earned economic, social, and health and nutrition related gains that had been achieved over the past decade.

Through successive waves between 2020 and 2021, the pandemic exposed multiple vulnerabilities in several South Asian economies that make them particularly susceptible to shocks of this kind: low levels of urbanization and development, high rates of internal and external migration and subsequent dependence on remittance incomes, labour-intensive industries, precarious, underfunded health systems, high rates of food insecurity and malnutrition, severe gender disparities, uncoordinated agricultural markets, and income and wealth inequalities.

Developing resilience against future shocks of this kind will require deeper structural changes. Given the size of South Asia’s population, the proportion of this population that is undernourished, its climate vulnerability and the limiting structural factors outlined above, the way the region responds to this and possible future pandemics will have broad and enduring consequences on global development targets, including the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

WHY A SPECIAL ISSUE?
The central motivation for this special issue is to publish a set of micro-econometric and simulation analyses that are grounded in primary data and capture critical aspects of COVID-19 in South Asia, with the aim of informing future policies. The focus will be on empirically rich, forward-looking, applied policy analyses related to South Asia. In bringing together this issue, the editors hope to anchor the large body of scholarship that has grown out of this crisis and offer concrete recommendations to mitigate the pandemic’s impact on vulnerable and already marginalized communities.

SUBMISSIONS

• To be considered for inclusion in the special issue, authors are requested to submit an extended abstract of no more than 8 pages (11 pt font, single-spaced, maximum of 4 figures and 4 tables).
• Cover letters and extended abstracts should be sent to Kalyani Raghunathan (k.raghunathan@cgiar.org) no later than midnight EDT on February 14, 2022. Submission emails should carry the title “COVID-19 in South Asia: Special Issue Submission”.

To know more about the special issue, thematic areas and submission process, click here.