The Effect of Covid-19 on Unemployment and Price Changes in Ethiopia: Evidence from Woldia Town “Does The Downward Sloping Philips Curve Hold True at Micro Level”

Abstract

The massive spread of corona creates pressure on the general systems of the world countries. As stated in some studies corona virus affect every institution and individuals of the world in many aspects. Specifically it results in high unemployment, low level of production and significance rise in the nominal price of commodities. This study tries to explain the change in those economic variables to analyze the effect of Covid-19 on the living standard of households in Woldia town, Amhara regional state of Ethiopia using a data obtained from the north wollo zone planning commission which had been collected from sampled individuals monthly. Since the issue is so recent and absence of many conducted researches on this area, this article have no specific chapter for review of literature and gives more focus for data analysis part. Then descriptive analysis indicates the presence of valuable rise in unemployment and average price levels simultaneously and the OLS regression result disproved the applicability of Philips curve for the study area under the influence of COVID-19.

Keywords: COVID-19, Philips curve, Regression analysis, Unemployment, Woldia Town, Ethiopia

DOI: 10.7176/RJFA/12-15-01

Publication date:August 31^st 2021