Current Research
List viewEconomists from around the world are using real time data collection to better understand the impact the Covid-19 crisis is having on families, workers, firms and society, and how policies can help the recovery out of the crisis. Find out more about how these research teams are carrying out their projects, and what their findings are below.
Resilience to economic shocks through continued electricity access
As Covid-19 spreads, access to reliable electricity will be critical in allowing households and firms to continue productive activities, keep their phones charged, and stay up-to-date on public health guidelines. Government restrictions that are need...
Primary Topic: Inequality & poverty
Secondary Topic: Recession & recovery
Lead investigator: Catherine Wolfram
Covid-19 and labour demand: evidence from Russia
The study is aimed to consider the impact of the Covid-19 on the labour market in Russia. In particular, we analyze the labour demand and its dynamics before and during the crisis, and estimate how the pandemic has changed the monetary value of the s...
Primary Topic: Jobs, work, pay & benefits
Lead investigator: Sofia Paklina
Countries
Trust in experts during an epidemic
Trust in science and experts is extremely important in times of epidemics to ensure compliance with public health measures. Yet little is known about how this trust evolves while an epidemic is underway. Understanding these processes is vital for pol...
Primary Topic: Attitudes, media & governance
Lead investigator: Pietro Battiston
Countries
Prediction bias in times of Covid-19: use of a linear infection-prediction model when the true model is exponential
The set of measures designed to halt the unrelenting transmission of Covid-19, prescribed by the World Health Organization and widely disseminated by local governments, include frequent washing of hands, use of hand sanitizers and face masks, social ...
Primary Topic: Science, technology & innovation
Lead investigator: Ritwik Banerjee
Staying close when apart: the value of “information communication” during Covid-19 pandemics
Information-sharing and communication are key features of pandemics. In particular, people share information about the outbreaks, communicate with family and friends—be it either for support or not, including employers—be it formal and informal e...
Primary Topic: Health, physical & mental
Secondary Topic: Inequality & poverty
Lead investigator: Francis Annan
Countries
Maximizing effectiveness of policy-based responses to Covid-19: mapping citizens’ preferences over multi-dimensional trade-offs
At the onset of large-scale health crises such as the recent Covid-19 pandemic, the unavailability of reliable medicine-based responses implies that the role of non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) and public health policies are essential in conta...
Primary Topic: Attitudes, media & governance
Lead investigator: Shaun Hargreaves Heap
Entering the labour market during a pandemic: scarring effects and youth unemployment
This research aims to investigate the consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic for labour market entrants, in particular the scarring effects on university graduates and the impact on youth unemployment. Macroeconomists have described the pandemic-drive...
Primary Topic: Jobs, work, pay & benefits
Secondary Topic: Schools, universities & training
Lead investigator: Francesco Amodio
Effects of Covid-19 pandemic on scientists’ research
The onset of Covid-19 has had an immediate impact on how scientists are able to use their time and resources to do research. However, there is a lack of data on how scientists are responding to this event and the heterogeneous disruptions to specific...
Primary Topic: Science, technology & innovation
Lead investigator: Kyle Myers
Countries
Contagion and migration in South Asia
The lockdown in South Asia has led to mass migration of people back to their home towns/villages as the work opportunities in urban centres shrink or are no longer available. This poses a public health risk to rural areas as migrants may spread the v...
Primary Topic: Inequality & poverty
Secondary Topic: Health, physical & mental
Lead investigator: Jean Nahrae Lee
Countries
The impact of Covid-19 on consumption and income inequality
The Covid-19 pandemic has had large economic consequences in the US, directly contributing to soaring unemployment and massively depressed demand. Such rapid changes in household economic characteristics can certainly affect earnings, income, and con...
Primary Topic: Recession & recovery
Secondary Topic: Jobs, work, pay & benefits
Lead investigator: Loujaina Abdelwahed
Countries
Do Environmental, Societal, and Governance (ESG) efforts make firms less vulnerable to financial market shocks? Evidence from the Covid-19 pandemic
Previous research indicates that stocks of companies endowed with high levels of Environmental, Societal, and Governance (ESG) responsibility characteristics fared better during the financial crisis of 2008-2009. But it is not known why this happens,...
Primary Topic: Banks & financial markets
Secondary Topic: Prices & interest rates
Lead investigator: Markku Kaustia
Countries
Hang up on stereotypes: domestic violence and anti-abuse helpline campaign
We estimate the consequences of a government-led anti-domestic-abuse campaign launched in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic on the number of calls to the italian domestic violence helpline. In the week after the start of the campaign, we document a ...
Primary Topic: Crime & policing
Secondary Topic: Families & households
Lead investigator: Marco Colagrossi
Countries
Bowling together by bowling alone: social capital and Covid-19
The literature documents a strong positive association between social capital and health. However, because personal social interactions are implicated in the spread of viral infections, areas with high levels of social capital may be especially at ri...
Primary Topic: Attitudes, media & governance
Secondary Topic: Health, physical & mental
Lead investigator: Francesca Borgonovi
Countries
Haiti in the age of covid: facing the pandemy and other challenges…
Fighting Covid in a country where about 1/2 of the population has no access to safe water and 3/4 lives with less than US$2 a day is both extremely demanding and asking very fundamental questions about where to channel the obviously undersized resour...
Primary Topic: Health, physical & mental
Secondary Topic: Schools, universities & training
Lead investigator: Jean-Baptiste Antenord
Countries
NSF-rapid: the Job Posting in Recession and Recovery (JPRR) project
The Job Posting in Recession and Recovery project will develop near real time indicators of labor demand for new workers by occupation, geographic area, and firms using job postings downloaded daily from company websites by a job search engine. The p...
Primary Topic: Jobs, work, pay & benefits
Lead investigator: Erling Barth
Countries
Global evidence on the determinants of public trust in governments during the Covid-19
Using the Worldwide Covid-19 Attitudes and Beliefs dataset covering 108,918 respondents from 178 countries, the paper examines the determinants of public trust in governments during the Covid-19. It is found that older and healthy people trust more t...
Primary Topic: Attitudes, media & governance
Secondary Topic: Nations, regions & cities
Lead investigator: Giray Gozgor
Early evidence of the impact of Covid-19 and the recession on older workers in the United States
We summarize the early effects, and anticipated future effects, of the Covid-19 pandemic and resulting recession on older workers in the United States. We start by discussing what we know about how older workers faired in prior recessions in the Unit...
Primary Topic: Recession & recovery
Secondary Topic: Jobs, work, pay & benefits
Lead investigator: Patrick Button
Countries
The Covid-19 pandemic and its impact on inequality of opportunity in psychological distress in the UK
We use data from Wave 9 of UK Household Longitudinal Study (UKHLS)and the April 2020 Wave of the UKHLS Covid-19 survey to compare measures of ex ante inequality of opportunity (IOp) in psychological distress, as measured by the General Health Questio...
Primary Topic: Health, physical & mental
Secondary Topic: Inequality & poverty
Lead investigator: Apostolos Davillas
Countries
Job search during the Covid-19 crisis
This paper measures the job-search responses to the Covid-19 pandemic using real-time data on vacancy postings and ad views on Sweden's largest online job board. First, vacancy postings drop by 40%, similar to the US. Second, job seekers respond...
Primary Topic: Jobs, work, pay & benefits
Lead investigator: Lena Hensvik
Countries
The impact of emergency cash assistance during a pandemic: experimental evidence from Colombia
We evaluate the impact of cash relief for vulnerable households during a pandemic. On March 31, 2020, Colombia rolled out an unconditional cash transfer program to help low-income households deal with the economic consequences of the coronavirus pand...
Primary Topic: Recession & recovery
Lead investigator: Juliana Londoño-Vélez
Countries
