Estimating sectoral COVID-19 economic losses in the Philippines using nighttime light and electricity consumption data

Introduction Economic loss estimation is critical for policymakers to craft policies that balance economic and health concerns during pandemic emergencies. However, this task is time-consuming and resource-intensive, posing challenges during emergencies.Method To address this, we proposed using electricity consumption (EC) and nighttime lights (NTL) datasets to estimate the total, commercial, and industrial economic losses from COVID-19 lockdowns in the Philippines. Regression models were employed to establish the relationship of GDP with EC and NTL. Then, models using basic statistics and weather data were developed to estimate the counterfactual EC and NTL, from which counterfactual GDP was derived. The difference between the actual and the counterfactual GDP from 2020 to 2021 yielded economic loss.Results This paper highlights three findings. First, the regression model results established that models based on EC (adj-R2 >= 0.978) were better at explaining GDP than models using NTL (adj-R2 >= 0.663); however, combining both EC and NTL improved the prediction (adj-R2 >= 0.979). Second, counterfactual EC and NTL could be estimated using models based on statistics and weather data explaining more than 81% of the pre-pandemic values. Last, the estimated total loss amounted to 2.9 trillion PhP in 2020 and 3.2 trillion PhP in 2021. More than two-thirds of the losses were in the commercial sector as it responded to both policies and the COVID-19 case surge. In contrast, the industrial sector was affected primarily by the lockdown implementation.Discussion This method allowed monitoring of economic losses resulting from long-term and large-scale hazards such as the COVID-19 pandemic. These findings can serve as empirical evidence for advocating targeted strategies that balance public health and the economy during pandemic scenarios.