The economic impact of COVID-19 on the creative industries: a sub-regional input–output approach

The creative industries are a strategically important sector for the Cardiff Capital Region (CCR) which houses large public sector broadcasters and an ecosystem of IT and software businesses. The CCR is an administrative boundary in Wales which captures just under half of the Welsh population but over half of the Welsh economy. The pandemic and resultant lockdown restrictions have had profound impacts on the creative industries, a sector which depends heavily on in-person interaction. The creative industries are not one homogenous sector, but a collection of different activities some of which faced different supply and demand conditions due to the COVID-19 shock. To understand the impact of the shock in fine inter-industry detail and at a sub-regional scale an input–output table for the Cardiff Capital Region (the CCRC-IO) is utilized. The CCRC-IO estimates that the direct, indirect, and induced impacts of the shock see output fall by £457 m (0.53% of CCR output), GVA by £147 m (0.58% of CCR GVA) and FTE employment by 2416 (0.58% of CCR FTE). The paper finds that the economic impact of the COVID-19 shock varies considerably by both geography and sub-sector.