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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.

Political beliefs affect compliance with Covid-19 social distancing orders

Social distancing is vital to mitigate the spread of the novel coronavirus. We use geolocation data to document that political beliefs present a significant limitation to the effectiveness of state-level social distancing orders. Residents in Republi...
Lead investigator: Marcus Painter
Countries

The role of inter-temporal biases in influencing individuals’ demand for social distancing

We examine the economic determinants for social distancing in the context of Covid-19. Previous economics studies document the important role behavioral biases could play in inter-temporal decision-making. Viewing health in an inter-temporal framewor...
Secondary Topic: Health, physical & mental
Lead investigator: Plamen Nikolov
Countries

Covid-19 and investor behavior

In the beginning of January 2020, the Chinese authorities identified a novel type of the coronavirus, which rapidly spread from China all over the world. The World Health Organization characterized the spread of the novel coronavirus officially as a ...
Secondary Topic: Prices & interest rates
Lead investigator: Regina Ortmann
Countries

Political polarization, social fragmentation, and cooperation during a pandemic

We study the impact of political polarization on the willingness of people to comply with social distancing directives during the Covid-19 pandemic. We find a reduced compliance with these measures when the state governor differs from the preferred p...
Lead investigator: Boriana Miloucheva
Countries

How does household spending respond to an epidemic? consumption during the 2020 Covid-19 pandemic

We explore how household consumption responds to epidemics, utilizing transaction-level household financial data to investigate the impact of the Covid-19 virus. As the number of cases grew, households began to radically alter their typical spending ...
Primary Topic: Families & households
Secondary Topic: Inequality & poverty
Lead investigator: Scott R. Baker
Countries

What are the effects of the Covid-19 crisis on labor demand? an analysis using job board data from Austria

In this project, we examine to what extent labor demand, measured in terms of vacancy postings, has changed during the crisis. Using data on various job characteristics, we analyze what type of jobs are most affected. These characteristics include oc...
Primary Topic: Business, big & small
Secondary Topic: Jobs, work, pay & benefits
Lead investigator: Omar Bamieh
Countries

Locked-down in a welfare state: visible costs and hidden gains

I exploit the variation related to lock-down measures put in place in Italy (March 9, 2020) and Norway (March 12, 2020), to estimate the aggregate net costs for the government budget from unemployment insurance (defined as the most important building...
Secondary Topic: Jobs, work, pay & benefits
Lead investigator: Roberto Iacono
Countries

Covid-19 and small firms: expectations, relief take-up and firm dynamics

Many small businesses have already been deeply affected by the Covid-19 crisis, leading them to lay off employees, temporarily close shop, or go out of business completely. In response, governments have passed specific provisions to help support smal...
Primary Topic: Business, big & small
Lead investigator: John Eric Humphries
Countries

Covid-19, city lockdowns, and air pollution: evidence from China

The rapid spread of Covid-19 is a global public health challenge. To prevent the escalation of its transmission, China locked down one-third of its cities and strictly restricted personal mobility and economic activities. Using timely and comprehensi...
Lead investigator: Guojon He
Countries

Evolution of atemporal and intertemporal risk preferences, time preferences, and subjective beliefs about prevalence and mortality of Covid-19 during the course of the global crisis: an incentivised experiment with American and South African samples

Policies adopted by most countries in 2020 for suppressing transmission of the novel coronavirus and of illness and mortality due to Covid-19 depend on compliance with mandated drastic and costly risk control measures by the general public. While res...
Lead investigator: Glenn W. Harrison
Countries

Income and wealth shocks and expectations during the Covid-19 pandemic

In early April 2020 we conducted a survey on a representative sample of more than 8,000 US households to study the effect of the coronavirus crisis on household income and retirement wealth, households' expectations about the recovery, and the i...
Primary Topic: Inequality & poverty
Secondary Topic: Recession & recovery
Lead investigator: Tobin Hanspal
Countries

Labour supply in the early stages of the Covid-19 pandemic: empirical evidence on hours, home office, and expectations

Using a survey module administered in late March 2020, we analyze how working hours change under the social distancing regulations enacted to fight the Covid-19 pandemic. We study the Netherlands, which are a prototypical Western European country, bo...
Lead investigator: Hans-Martin von Gaudecker
Countries

The impact of Covid-19 on the lives of women in the garment industry: evidence from Ethiopia

In this project, we conduct high-frequency phone surveys on a panel of women who work in garment factories in Ethiopia’s largest industrial park in the city of Hawassa to document how their lives are changing during the Covid-19 crisis. Sampling fr...
Primary Topic: Inequality & poverty
Secondary Topic: Recession & recovery
Lead investigator: Morgan Hardy
Countries

A cross country analyses of sentiments and emotions, before and after Covid-19, using big data

The main aim of this project is to analyse and compare sentiment and emotions of people in three countries, before and after the introduction of regulations to limit the spread of the Covid-19 virus. The uniqueness in the choice of the countries lies...
Lead investigator: Talita Greyling

Economic impacts of Covid-19 lockdowns on vulnerable populations: evidence from Jordan

This project examines the economic impact of Covid-19 lockdown policies in Jordan. It focuses on the distributional impacts across different segments of society: the rich and poor, formal and informal workers, occupations, industries, women and refug...
Primary Topic: Inequality & poverty
Secondary Topic: Transport & infrastructure
Lead investigator: Michael Gechter
Countries

Measuring risk and time preferences during the emergence of the Covid-19 crisis

We measure risk and time preferences, and examine the relationship with the disposition effect. Firstly, to estimate preferences, we use and compare several well-known quantitative and qualitative methods. Our main specification is an extended versio...
Lead investigator: Jorgo T.G. Goossens
Countries

Our Covid story

Our Covid Story is a longitudinal study examining the impact of pandemic stress on health behaviors. Two cohorts of participants, from New York City and the broader United States, use a mobile app to complete approximately 5-10 minutes of self-report...
Lead investigator: Paul Glimcher
Countries

Political partisanship influences behavioral responses to governors' recommendations for Covid-19 prevention in the United States

Voluntary physical distancing is essential for preventing the spread of Covid-19. Political partisanship may influence individuals' responsiveness to recommendations from political leaders. Daily mobility during March 2020 was measured using loc...
Lead investigator: Guy Grossman
Countries

The short-term effect of quarantine requirement on domestic violence

Quarantines implemented worldwide following the spread of the coronavirus resulted in many people having to spend more time with their families and partners, which can potentially lead to an increase in intra-family violence. Our study seeks to asses...
Primary Topic: Crime & policing
Lead investigator: M. Amelia Gibbons
Countries

Labor market flows and the Covid-19 economy

I examine labor market flows in the CPS through March 2020. Although there was a dramatic single month increase in the unemployment rate and exit rate from employment, most cyclical flows (hiring, employer-to-employer flows, quits) have not yet chang...
Lead investigator: Eliza Forsythe
Countries