Current Research
Map 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.
Trade-offs in automated political advertising regulation: evidence from the Covid-19 pandemic
Digital platforms have experienced pressure to restrict and regulate political advertising content. This paper presents evidence of unintended consequences of restrictions on political ads related to the Covid-19 pandemic. We use data on more than 30...
Primary Topic: Attitudes, media & governance
Lead investigator: Grazia Cecere
Sustaining pro-social and environmental behaviours beyond Covid-19
Covid-19 has triggered a global economic shutdown, leading to unintended reductions in carbon emissions and other pollutants as a result of decreased travel and consumption. Although a global pandemic that has caused close to 400,000 deaths at time o...
Primary Topic: Recession & recovery
Secondary Topic: Energy & climate change
Lead investigator: Roger Fouquet
Countries
The idiosyncratic impact of an aggregate shock: the distributional consequences of Covid-19
Using new data from the Understanding Society: Covid-19 survey collected in April 2020, we show how the aggregate shock caused by the pandemic affects individuals across the distribution in the UK. The survey collects data from existing members of th...
Primary Topic: Inequality & poverty
Secondary Topic: Jobs, work, pay & benefits
Lead investigator: Michaela Benzeval
Countries
Governments’ responses to Covid-19 all around the world
Following the Covid-19 outbreak, governments all around the world have implemented public health and economic measures to contain the spread of the virus and to support the economy. This project aims at tracking governments’ responses to Covid-19 i...
Primary Topic: Attitudes, media & governance
Lead investigator: Simon Porcher
The heterogeneous labor market impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic
We study the distributional consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic's impacts on employment. Using CPS data on stocks and flows, we show that the pandemic has exacerbated pre-existing inequalities. Although employment losses have been widespread, ...
Primary Topic: Jobs, work, pay & benefits
Lead investigator: Matias Cortes
Countries
The economic effects of Covid-19 and credit constraints: evidence from Italian firms' expectations and plans
We investigate the economic effects of the Covid-19 pandemic and the role played by credit constraints in the transmission mechanism, using a novel survey of expectations and plans of Italian firms, taken just before and after the outbreak. Most firm...
Primary Topic: Attitudes, media & governance
Secondary Topic: Recession & recovery
Lead investigator: Pierluigi Balduzzi
Countries
Shock salience and heterogeneity in individual behavior
We study heterogeneity in attitudes and behavior after the Covid-19 crisis in the population of international students across several university campuses in North America. More specifically, we study whether the response to the shock varies by field ...
Primary Topic: Attitudes, media & governance
Lead investigator: Livia Alfonsi
Countries
Covid 19: a new challenge for the European monetary union
Although the pandemic was an exogenous shock, it triggered portfolio rebalancing in the Euro Area (EA) implying a divergence of sovereign risk premia in the first phase of the crisis eventually followed by a narrowing of the spreads. We estimate the ...
Primary Topic: Public spending, taxes & debt
Secondary Topic: Prices & interest rates
Lead investigator: Anne-Laure Delatte
Consumer expectations around Covid-19: evolution over time
Since Apr 24, 2020, we have been collecting direct information on consumers’ expectations about the duration of social distancing rules, including stay-at-home and social-distancing rules, and of business closures, in the United States and Canada. ...
Primary Topic: Attitudes, media & governance
Secondary Topic: Recession & recovery
Lead investigator: Fabian Lange
Poverty and Covid-19 in developing countries
In March 2020, shelter-in-place and social-distancing policies have been enforced or recommended all over the world to fight the Covid-19 pandemic. However, strict containment is hardly achievable in low-income countries, as large parts of population...
Primary Topic: Inequality & poverty
Lead investigator: Olivier Bargain
Managing the Covid-19 pandemic in poor urban neighbourhoods: the case of Ghana and South Africa
The novel Coronavirus, Covid-19, and measures to combat it are expected to have a significant impact on the physical and mental well being of all people, but especially those living in poor urban neighbourhoods. We are conducting a panel phone survey...
Primary Topic: Inequality & poverty
Secondary Topic: Families & households
Lead investigator: Isabel Gunther
Countries
Lives or livelihoods? perceived trade-offs and public demand for non-pharmaceutical interventions
We study the role of cost-benefit considerations in driving public demand for nonpharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) during the Covid-19 pandemic. In a large-scale online survey experiment with a representative sample of the US population, we introdu...
Primary Topic: Attitudes, media & governance
Lead investigator: Sonja Settele
Countries
Families under confinement: Covid-19, domestic violence, and alcohol consumption
Evidence suggests that during the Covid-19 lockdown, alcohol consumption has increased and income has gone down among several households in Mexico City. The existing literature relates alcohol consumption and negative income shocks to a greater numbe...
Primary Topic: Crime & policing
Lead investigator: Jose Roberto Balmori de la Miyar
Countries
Effectiveness of government policies in response to the Covid-19 outbreak
This paper assesses the quantitative impact of government interventions on deaths related to the Covid-19 outbreak. Using daily data for 32 countries and relying on the stringency of the conducted policies, we find that the greater the strength of go...
Primary Topic: Attitudes, media & governance
Secondary Topic: Nations, regions & cities
Lead investigator: Theologos Dergiades
Civic capital and social distancing during the Covid-19 pandemic
The success of non-pharmaceutical interventions to contain pandemics often depends greatly upon voluntary compliance with government guidelines. What explains variation in voluntary compliance? Using mobile phone and survey data, we show that during ...
Primary Topic: Attitudes, media & governance
Lead investigator: John M Barrios
Assessing impacts on and resilience to food insecurity amid the Covid-19 lockdowns in Nigeria
As of the end of May 2020, there have been over 9000 cases and over 260 deaths from Covid-19 in Nigeria and cases have been rising quickly in recent weeks. To prevent the spread of the virus, governments in multiple states have imposed lockdowns. Whi...
Primary Topic: Health, physical & mental
Secondary Topic: Inequality & poverty
Lead investigator: Elena M Martinez
Countries
Risk perception and oil and gas markets under pandemic: evidence from Covid-19
The novel coronavirus (Covid-19) exposed individuals and investors to a great uncertainty about its short- and long-term health and economic ramifications, especially in the early days and weeks of the outbreak. This study documents oil and gasoline ...
Primary Topic: Attitudes, media & governance
Secondary Topic: Prices & interest rates
Lead investigator: Behzod B. Ahundjanov
Covid-19 and the demand for flexible annuities
The demand for voluntary lifetime annuities is low. Two potential driving mechanisms behind this phenomenon are uninsurable risk early in life and financial illiteracy. Covid-19 generates a large amount of uncertainty for workers. We measure preferen...
Primary Topic: Pensions, savings & investment
Lead investigator: Pim Koopmans
Countries
Community health care and Covid-19 pandemic: experimental evidence from Uganda
The limited capacity of the health systems in many low-income countries, especially in rural areas, suggests that the rapid spreading of the Covid-19 virus could have huge consequences in those areas. On top of the direct impact of the virus, a growi...
Primary Topic: Attitudes, media & governance
Secondary Topic: Health, physical & mental
Lead investigator: Martina Bjorkman-Nyqvist
Countries
Understanding the impact of Covid-19 on economic outcomes and well-being of rural communities in western Uganda
We use high-frequency phone surveys to dynamically track the impact of covid19 over a 3-month period. We already have baseline data on a sample of 1,250 households randomly selected from rural villages in Western Uganda. These baseline surveys were c...
Primary Topic: Inequality & poverty
Secondary Topic: Recession & recovery
Lead investigator: Mahreen Mahmud
Countries
