Economic events are occurrences which affect the economic positively or negatively. An example of an economic event is the Covid-19 pandemic that happened in 2019. Measuring the changes in employment, revenue and profits are some of the ways of measuring the impact an event has to the economy. These impacts are measurable in monetary value for instance, the Covid-19 pandemic caused a seven percent decrease in employment in the labor market. This paper discusses unemployment, decrease in Gross Domestic Product (GDP), decrease in the industrial performance and tax regulations as effects of the occurrence of an economic event.

GDP is the total market value of goods and services produced within a country during a period of one year, measured in monetary terms. According to StephOum et al. (2022) , the global GDP reduced by 3.9% between 2019 and 2020 due to the challenges that faced the global economy during the Covid-19 pandemic. A decrease in GDP can lead to decline in business activities, which affects the financial stability of the business¹. The measures taken against the pandemic such as lockdowns and restrictions reduced the activities of many industries. Their mobility to operate and the time restrictions reduced their activities and hence the revenue they could generate to cater for salaries for the employers, resulting to most of them being laid off.

1. Tracking the COVID-19 economy's effects on food, housing, and employment hardships.

              Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. (n.d.). Retrieved September 8, 2022, from

              https://www.cbpp.org/research/poverty-and-inequality/tracking-the-covid-19-economys-

              effect

2. Tracking the COVID-19 economy's effects on food, housing, and employment hardships.

Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. (n.d.). Retrieved September 8, 2022, from https://www.cbpp.org/research/poverty-and-inequality/tracking-the-covid-19-economys- effect

The revenue generated by businesses reduces limiting the finances to cater for employees hence leading to unemployment.

While employment levels began to increase in 2021, the unemployment rate remained high through 2019 and 2020. The unemployed people went through hardships of being unhoused due to rent accumulation and expiring unemployment benefits. According to Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (n.d), around 10million people were behind on rent, with 20million households with little or nothing to eat due to supply chain problems. However, through steady progress, provision of relief measures and improvement of employment by the government helped to reduce the struggles faced by those affected by the economic fallout.

Despite the struggles most people went through due to the economic fallouts, the government took several economic measures to enable people to cope with the negative impacts. Prices for goods and services had increased to cover the downfall of the revenue generated by the government through taxes. The government reduced the personal income tax charged on people from a 30% rate to a 25% rate. According to StephOum et al. (2022), most retailers had to take out loans to able to cope with the effects of the economic downfall but the government reduced the turnover tax rates for Small, Medium and Micro businesses (SMEs). They also offered tax relief for the low-income earners to help them cope with the increasing price rates of goods and services.

It is important to note that the negative impacts that occurred due to the recession of the pandemic were all measured in terms of incomes from households and businesses, labor force and the changes in the prices of goods and services. The monetary value of the declined activities was used to calculate and evaluate the impact of the pandemic on economy.

On the other hand, according to Wikimedia Foundation (2022), economic concentration is when a small number of firms or enterprises, their shares and sales dominate a large percentage of economic activity. The Herfindahl-Hirschman Index is used to calculate the market concentration in a particular area, using the market share which could be in form of sales, number of outlets or the number of employees in the firms. While the market concentration is determined by the number of firms in the market, there are several factors that affect the concentration of some markets. Industry size and age, barriers to entry and current levels of advertising are some of the factors affecting market concentration in some areas.

The economic concentration is important in determining the market power and hence, the level of competitiveness in comparison to other markets. The level of competition is directly proportional to the economic concentration if for instance, firms whose cost for survival is high merge with other firms to increase their concentration and hence the level of productivity compared to other markets. Contrary, issues such as barriers to entry limit the merging of businesses reducing concentration, hence reducing their competitiveness to other market Wikimedia Foundation (2022).

Increase in profits is another impact of economic concentration. As firms merge and work together as a market, the highly concentrated markets are able to yield more profits compared to low concentrated markets. According to Huang et al. (2017), as concentration increases, chances and cost of collusion are reduced since they are shared among the firms in the market, leading to the increased profits. An increase in market power is also an impact of market concentration.

While the power of the wealthy is increased, they are able to manipulate the prices of commodities by manipulating their supply or demand. By manipulating the prices, the market can be able to survive under competition, this is also referred to as monopoly power.

While concentration of the economy increases profits and competition level, it reduces the level of innovation the small firms have. Through merging to increase the market concentration, firms are limited their capability to able to invent and innovate ideas to run their businesses. Over time, the firms end up stagnating and losing their competitive edge. Which leads them to failure.

In conclusion, the impacts of economic events and economic concentration can be positive or negative depending on the cause of the impact. Although, some of the negative effects can adverse, there are measured that can be taken to curb further economic recession and help the people impacted in coping with the shortcomings. The government plays a major role in offering incentives as well as regulations to manage the negative impacts.

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