Factors Associated with Coronavirus (COVID-19) Deaths and Infections: A Cross Country Evidence

Though most of the countries across the world are crippled with COVID-19, there has been substantial variations in death and infection rates. While some countries are overwhelmed, a few are spared. Little is known what explains this variation. This study attempts to understand the covariates of death and infection rates of COVID-19 across countries using multivariate regression analysis and least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) regression. The OLS estimates show that the aging population and hospital bed per capita are significantly associated with the fatality rate of COVID-19, while urbanization has a positive correlation with the inflection rate. The study suggests that an increase in health systems capacity can significantly reduce the fatality rates due to COVID-19.