The influence of climate factors and government interventions on the Covid-19 pandemic: Evidence from 134 countries

This paper investigates at the world level the influence of climate on the transmission of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. For that purpose, panel regressions of the number of cases and deaths from 134 countries are run on a set of explanatory variables (air temperature, relative humidity, precipitation, and wind) along with control variables (government interventions and population size and density). The analysis is completed with a panel threshold regression to check for potential non-linearities of the weather variables on virus transmission. The main findings support the role of climate in the circulation of the virus across countries. The detailed analysis reveals that relative humidity reduces the number of cases and deaths in both low and high regimes, while temperature and wind reduce the number of deaths.