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Current Research

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Economists 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
Countries

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...
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...
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 ...
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...
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...
Lead investigator: Shaun Hargreaves Heap
Countries

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...
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...
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

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,...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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