Why can some countries perform better in resolving some social problems: A comparative study

Abstract

This study explores the rationale why some countries fare better in resolving social problems such as poverty and the COVID-19 pandemic. The simple model introduces the term of resident viability and points out that the solution to a social problem with a large ratio of nonviable to viable residents requires the mobilisation of more societal resources, and the affordable price ratio of societal to individual resources is determined by country characteristics such as the cultural background, political regime, ideology towards the free-market mechanism, government efficiency and social trust. This study also makes between-country comparisons and conducts preliminary regression analyses with cross-country data, and all the results are consistent with the model predictions on the relationship between country characteristics and country performances in fighting poverty and handling the COVID-19 pandemic.

Keywords:

• Social problems
• COVID-19
• poverty eradication
• viability
• between-country comparison

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Acknowledgements

We are very grateful for the encouragement and constructive comments from Editor-in-Chief Peng Du, Executive Editor Qing He, Assistant Editor Zifei Cheng, and the two anonymous reviewers. All remaining errors are our own.

Notes

1 The term viability has been applied to enterprises in the literature, and an enterprise is viable if the enterprise is expected to make socially acceptable profits without external assistance (Lin and Tan 1999).

2 Human capital comprises natural endowment, educational increment, knowledge from reading, and spillovers from colleagues, competitors and others, as well as working experience and skills (Becker and Woessmann 2009; Lucas 2015).

3 WHO Situation Report – 86, released on 19 January 2022, available at: cdn.who.int/media/docs/default-source/searo/indonesia/covid19/external-situation-report-86_19-january-2022.pdf?sfvrsn = 7db37ea6_5.