Given the doubts that arise when using the verb repercussion, the Royal Spanish Academy offers a series of keys that clarify its proper use.
Source: Fundéu RAE
According to the Dictionary of the Spanish language, impact means, among other meanings, ‘said about one thing: transcend, cause an effect on another’. If you want to express that something gives rise to something else, the use of this verb is not appropriate and instead, depending on the context, alternatives such as derive (in), cause, result, have as a consequence, cause , cause, bring about, generate…
Thus, in sentences such as “The company is in the midst of a growth phase, which has had an impact on higher expenses” or “The demand for care during the pandemic has had an impact on an increase in female employment”, it would have been advisable to write “The company will is in full growth phase, which caused higher expenses” and “The demand for care during the pandemic led to an increase in female employment”.
Preposition
In this sense, according to the Pan-Hispanic Dictionary of Dudes, this verb is intransitive and is built with a complement introduced by en or sobre, not a.
Therefore, in examples such as “This problem with the vineyards can also affect the price of wine” or “The increase only affects those workers who receive less than the legally established income”, it is appropriate to write “This problem with the vineyards It can also have an impact on the price of wine” and “The increase only affects those workers who receive less than the legally established income”.
Use in the economic field
In economic language, it is also possible to use repercussion as transitive, a context in which it acquires the meaning of ‘causing something, especially a tax or expense, to fall or have an effect on another thing or person’, as in «The company has to bear said payments without passing on their amount to the public.
Outside this scope, it is appropriate to avoid this use, as observed in “Diet affects performance” or “This finding does not only affect healthy patients”, where it would have been indicated to write “Diet affects performance” and “This finding does not only have an impact on healthy patients.”
