  The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of the COVID-19
pandemic on economic policy uncertainty in the US and the UK. The impact of the
increase in COVID-19 cases and deaths in the country, and the increase in the
number of cases and deaths outside the country may vary. To examine this, the
study employs bootstrap ARDL cointegration approach from March 8, 2020 to May
24, 2020. According to the bootstrap ARDL results, a long-run equilibrium
relationship is confirmed for five out of the 10 models. The long-term
coefficients obtained from the ARDL models suggest that an increase in COVID-19
cases and deaths outside of the UK and the US has a significant effect on
economic policy uncertainty. The US is more affected by the increase in the
number of COVID-19 cases. The UK, on the other hand, is more negatively
affected by the increase in the number of COVID-19 deaths outside the country
than the increase in the number of cases. Moreover, another important finding
from the study demonstrates that COVID-19 is a factor of great uncertainty for
both countries in the short-term.
