The Economic Power of Capital and the Spread of COVID-19 in the United States: An Empirical Study

Abstract

This study proposes a Marxian explanation to account for the spread of COVID-19 in the United States in 2020. Capital opposed and resisted public non-pharmaceutical interventions because they interfered with short-term profitability. The economy was prematurely reopened under the structural economic power of capital at the expense of society. This empirical analysis exploits the variation in the local economic power of capital across counties, measured by the county-level employment share of employees of private for-profit companies. If the structural economic power of capital in a county was more substantial, then the cumulative COVID-19 death rate and the unemployment rate were larger, and social distancing behaviors were discouraged in that county. Workplace safety was not guaranteed during the pandemic, potentially contributing to the spread of COVID-19.

JEL Classification: B51, I18, P17