An investigation on socio-economic impacts of the COVID-19 process by clustering analysis

One of the events that most affect societies throughout human history is infectious diseases. These diseases cause significant damage to the economic and social structure of countries as well as human health. As a matter of fact, historical experiences show that pandemics can have political consequences such as the collapse of the state, changes in governments, economic consequences such as the deterioration of the production and employment structure, and demographic consequences such as mass migration and deaths. Researches and scientific predictions for the future show that these past experiences have the nature of a cycle and that similar events will continue to exist today and in the future. However, in addition to scientific research and technological inventions, the increase in global welfare and the improvement of living conditions have caused a rapid increase in the world population by fighting epidemic diseases more effectively. As a matter of fact, the world population, known as 1.5 million in the 1900s, has exceeded 7 billion in 2022. Despite the increase in population with all these scientific advances, the difference between the welfare and income distribution of countries between their own citizens and other countries creates an obstacle to the equal access of many public services to all individuals. The COVID-19 pandemic, which emerged when the first quarter of the 20st century was about to finish and continues its existence rapidly, has become an important research topic in social sciences as well as in many branches of science. Economics is one of these research areas. Because, it has been observed that globalization has suffered a serious injury during the pandemic process and almost all sectors have been affected by this epidemic, bankruptcies have increased throughout the world, and these bankruptcies have made temporary and precarious workers poorer, mostly in the service sector. For this reason, it is inevitable that this virus, which affects the world economy on a global scale, will also have an impact on the social structure. The aim of this study is to reveal the socioeconomic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic with statistical indicators of Turkey, as well as to examine the situation of Turkey among OECD countries with a cluster analysis. During this review, while the economic and social data of Turkey were presented in tables, the situation of similar data in other countries was also included; Thus, it is aimed to examine the economic and social effects of the COVID-19 pandemic in a multidimensional way. According to the study findings; in order to eliminate the negative economic and social effects of the pandemic, it is of great importance for Turkey to turn to the policies required by the social state in the field of education and health and to give priority to social policies. Keywords: COVID-19, Pandemic, Socioeconomic impacts, Cluster analysis