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.
Wage inequality and poverty effects of lockdown and social distancing in Europe
The “social distancing” measures taken to contain the spread of Covid-19 impose economic costs that go beyond the contraction of GDP. Since different occupations are not equally affected, this supply shock may have distributional implications. He...
Primary Topic: Jobs, work, pay & benefits
Lead investigator: Juan C. Palomino
Pro-sociality predicts health behaviors during the Covid-19 pandemic
Socially responsible behavior is crucial for slowing the spread of infectious diseases. However, economic and epidemiological models of disease transmission abstract from prosocial motivations as a driver of behaviors that impact the health of others...
Primary Topic: Attitudes, media & governance
Secondary Topic: Health, physical & mental
Lead investigator: Pol Campos-Mercade
Countries
The short run and long run effects of Covid-19 on children’s human capital and labor.
The Covid-19 crisis is likely to bring to the surface weaknesses in the education system of developing countries, with the poorest sections of the population being disproportionately adversely affected. With the social-distancing measures having clos...
Primary Topic: Schools, universities & training
Secondary Topic: Inequality & poverty
Lead investigator: Samreen Malik
Countries
Covid-19 health messaging to underserved communities
In the US, recent statistics show that African American and Latinx communities bear a disproportionate burden from Covid-19. Reaching vulnerable and underserved populations is therefore crucial to combating the disease. However, most public messaging...
Primary Topic: Health, physical & mental
Lead investigator: Marcella Alsan
Countries
Accepting the mask, accepting the mosque? the effects of Covid-19 related face covering on prejudice towards religious veiling.
Using a large scale lab-in-the-field experimental setting, we study how the mitigation efforts for Covid-19 in the form of covering the face through masks affect the behavior and perception of subjects towards others. In particular, we study whether ...
Primary Topic: Attitudes, media & governance
Lead investigator: Samreen Malik
Countries
The effects of marketing inclusivity in the wake of Covid-19 on university matriculation
We conducted a randomized controlled trial (RCT) aimed at increasing application and matriculation rates among women (and underrepresented minority (URM) women) at California Polytechnic State University’s College of Business. RCT marketing address...
Primary Topic: Schools, universities & training
Secondary Topic: Inequality & poverty
Lead investigator: Jacqueline Doremus
Countries
The health and wellbeing impacts of Covid-19 among rural households in Bangladesh
To curb the spread of the Covid-19 Bangladesh started a countrywide lockdown from late March 2020, which resulted in business closure and disruption of economic activities bringing the livelihood of millions of people, particularly those in the low-i...
Primary Topic: Health, physical & mental
Lead investigator: Asadul Islam
Countries
Perceived risk and wellbeing during the Covid-19 crisis in India
Covid-19 has paralyzed the world over the last few months and has sent millions into complete lockdown. Residents from developing countries such as India who suffer from widespread poverty and inequality and reside in regions with high population den...
Primary Topic: Health, physical & mental
Secondary Topic: Inequality & poverty
Lead investigator: Debayan Pakrashi
Countries
Disparate impacts of Covid-19 lockdowns in Pakistan affecting girls and rural
residents
In this article, we examine the feasibility of working and studying from home in Pakistan. We take advantage of the 2018–19 Pakistan Social and Living Standards Measurement (PSLM) Survey, released only weeks ago. PSLM is a nationally representative...
Primary Topic: Jobs, work, pay & benefits
Secondary Topic: Inequality & poverty
Lead investigator: Syed Hasan
Countries
Covid-19 and educational inequality – evidence from Germany
In spring 2020, governments around the globe shut down schools to mitigate the spread of the novel coronavirus. We conduct a large-scale survey in Germany to study parent-child time use during the educational shutdown. Focusing on differences across ...
Primary Topic: Schools, universities & training
Secondary Topic: Inequality & poverty
Lead investigator: Elisabeth Grewenig
Countries
Covid-19 and the future of microfinance: evidence and insights from Pakistan
The Covid-19 pandemic threatens lives and livelihoods, and, with that, has created immediate challenges for institutions that serve affected communities. We focus on implications for local microfinance institutions in Pakistan, a country with a matur...
Primary Topic: Business, big & small
Secondary Topic: Inequality & poverty
Lead investigator: Kashif Malik
Countries
Covid-19 information and demand for protective gear in the UK
Amid the Covid-19 crisis in the UK, we study the demand and willingness to pay for hand sanitiser gel, disposable face masks and disposable gloves, and the role of information on tested people and Covid-19 deaths in explaining the demand and willingn...
Primary Topic: Business, big & small
Secondary Topic: Prices & interest rates
Lead investigator: Sonia Oreffice
Countries
Identity in multicultural society
The project experimentally investigates the role of identity in shaping preferences and attitudes. A multidimensional definition of identity informs the work, with specific attention to differences between natives and immigrants. At this aim, we run ...
Primary Topic: Attitudes, media & governance
Lead investigator: Natalia Montinari
Countries
The effect of social distancing on risk aversion, trust, and solidarity
The experiment investigates the causal effect of social distancing on behavioral traits that are important in interpersonal relationships. We exploit the different timing of stay-at-home orders issued during the Covid-19 outbreak as a natural experim...
Primary Topic: Attitudes, media & governance
Lead investigator: Antonio Filippin
Countries
Coronavirus pandemic shock, economic preferences and beliefs: an online survey experiment
Preferences and beliefs (such as risk preferences), for individuals who experience dramatic natural disasters (such as a major hurricane), are unstable. The diversity and breadth of the Covid-19 pandemic provide a unique, although grime, opportunity ...
Primary Topic: Attitudes, media & governance
Lead investigator: Raymond Duch
Robo-advisor adoption, willingness to pay, and trust—an experimental investigation pre and during Covid-19
We compare readiness to adopt and willingness to pay for (as a proxy for trust) financial advice provided three ways (algorithm, human, and a hybrid of algorithm and human) using an online and a computerized laboratory experiment. Our experiments wer...
Primary Topic: Attitudes, media & governance
Lead investigator: Daniel Ben David
Countries
The effects of covid on women: work, housework and financial decisions
The outbreak of Covid-19 has affected lives of hundreds of thousands of men and women throughout the world. In Italy, the impact has been more severe than in the rest of Europe. Women are severely hit by the choc, both on their jobs and in their fami...
Primary Topic: Health, physical & mental
Secondary Topic: Families & households
Lead investigator: Daniela Del Boca
Countries
Be kind: domestic violence and mental health during a strict Covid-19 lockdown
The proposed study is going to exploit timing of a nationwide Covid-19 lockdown to estimate the impacts of social distancing on domestic violence incidents and mental health referrals using administrative data in New Zealand. To estimate local averag...
Primary Topic: Health, physical & mental
Secondary Topic: Crime & policing
Lead investigator: Kabir Dasgupta
Countries
The Corona virus Covid-19 crisis
The research is based off the results of a 10-minute survey using the University's Qualtrics questionnaire system, surveying information on the potential personal impact of Covid-19 on one's own income and employment situation, personal hea...
Primary Topic: Health, physical & mental
Secondary Topic: Jobs, work, pay & benefits
Lead investigator: Prof. Dr. John P. de New
Heterogeneous consumption and income responses during the Covid-19 crisis
This project aims to examine the distributional consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic using the Singapore Life Panel (SLP), a unique monthly panel dataset which contains detailed information on income, consumption and wealth for a representative samp...
Primary Topic: Families & households
Secondary Topic: Inequality & poverty
Lead investigator: Jing Li
Countries
