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.
Human behaviour, cultural narratives and the economy during and after Covid-19
This project focuses on the Culture-Based Development (CBD) aspects of the effect of the Covid-19 pandemic. It analyses cultural biases created through narratives and conveying old social constructs that generate socio-economic inequalities during an...
Primary Topic: Inequality & poverty
Secondary Topic: Health, physical & mental
Lead investigator: Annie Tubadji
Countries
The cost of staying open: voluntary social distancing and lockdowns in the us
In combating the spread of Covid-19, some governments have been reluctant to adopt lockdown policies due to their perceived economic costs. Such costs can, however, arise even in the absence of restrictive policies, if individuals' independent r...
Primary Topic: Recession & recovery
Secondary Topic: Attitudes, media & governance
Lead investigator: David Van Dijcke
Countries
The sooner, the better: the early economic impact of non-pharmaceutical interventions during the Covid-19 pandemic
The size of the economic shocks triggered by the Covid-19 pandemic and the effects of the associated non-pharmaceutical interventions have not been fully assessed because the official economic indicators have not been published. This paper provides e...
Primary Topic: Recession & recovery
Lead investigator: Asli Demirgüç-Kunt
Measuring social distancing: an empirical analysis using geo-location data from smartphones
This research project uses anonymized geo-location data from 60 million mobile phone users in Brazil to quantify the impact of coronavirus lockdown measures on social distancing. The results confirm that the current share of the population staying ho...
Primary Topic: Attitudes, media & governance
Lead investigator: Tharcisio Leon
Countries
How effective are social distancing policies? evidence on the fight against Covid-19 from Germany
To fight the spread of Covid-19, many countries implemented unprecedented social distancing policies. This is the first paper that uses an event-study approach to examine the effects of the German social distancing policies on (a) individual behavior...
Primary Topic: Health, physical & mental
Lead investigator: Ulrich Glogowsky
Countries
Economic determinants of violence in the home: the case of Sweden during Covid-19
Violence within the home is the most common form of interpersonal violence for women. While children and men are also victims of abuse of various kind within the family, intimate partner violence (IPV) committed by men against women is generally the ...
Primary Topic: Crime & policing
Secondary Topic: Families & households
Lead investigator: Maria Perrota
Countries
Understanding the rise of domestic violence during the Covid-19 pandemic. Evidence from Spain.
Domestic Violence can have serious negative consequences, with wide-ranging psychological, economic and physical effects for women and children over their lifetimes. Early evidence from most affected countries (China, Italy, Spain) suggests that dome...
Primary Topic: Crime & policing
Lead investigator: Daniel Fernandez-Kranz
Countries
Household behaviour: the Covid-19 “dance” phase
Until a vaccine arrives, forecasting economic activity is even more difficult than usual. For example, in the UK it is striking to see the difference between the IMF’s baseline scenario GDP loss of 6.5% for 2020, and the Office for Budget Responsib...
Primary Topic: Recession & recovery
Secondary Topic: Attitudes, media & governance
Lead investigator: Stefanie J. Huber
Social connections with Covid-19-affected areas increase compliance with mobility restrictions
We study the role of social connections in households’ responses to mobility restrictions imposed amid the Covid-19 epidemic, using aggregated and anonymized Facebook data on social connections and mobile phone data for tracking movement. Measured ...
Primary Topic: Inequality & poverty
Secondary Topic: Families & households
Lead investigator: Ben Charoenwong
Countries
The economic impact of Covid-19 and subsequent debt relief policies
Our research project examines the economic effects of Covid-19 and subsequent debt and credit relief policies along the value chain. Our project examines the effects on the micro to small and medium-size enterprises (SMEs) along the value chain as we...
Primary Topic: Business, big & small
Secondary Topic: Recession & recovery
Lead investigator: Giacomo De Giorgi
Countries
Nowcasting (real-time estimates of) aggregate economic activity and financial stability risks using national payment system data during Covid-19 outbreak.
Our goal is to construct a reliable measure to estimate the economic activity and financial stability risk in real time. We use a unique dataset obtained from the National Payment System (NPS) of the Bank of Russia. Dataset is updated daily and conta...
Primary Topic: Business, big & small
Lead investigator: Anna Burova
Countries
Covid-19, stay-at-home orders and well-being: evidence from Google trends
We investigate the impact of the government response to Covid-19 on health and well-being using Google Trends Data. More precisely, we aim to test the impact of stay-at home orders on 12 Google Trends topics related to health and well-being in the US...
Primary Topic: Health, physical & mental
Secondary Topic: Families & households
Lead investigator: Abel Brodeur
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
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
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
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
Belief in science influences physical distancing in response to Covid-19 lockdown policies
Physical distancing reduces transmission risks and slows the spread of Covid-19. Local and regional governments in the United States have issued shelter-in-place policies to mandate physical distancing. Yet compliance with these policies is uneven an...
Primary Topic: Attitudes, media & governance
Secondary Topic: Science, technology & innovation
Lead investigator: David Van Dijcke
Countries
The Covid-19 pandemic and sovereign bond risk
Governments around the world are tackling the Covid-19 pandemic with a mix of public health, fiscal, macroprudential, monetary, or market-based policies. We aim to quantify the impact on European sovereign CDS spreads of the pandemic and the policy m...
Primary Topic: Prices & interest rates
Secondary Topic: Trade & supply chains
Lead investigator: Alin Marius Andries
