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.
Using weekly financial and health diaries to track health and income effects of the Covid-19 outbreak and government response measures in rural Kenya
While the current number of Covid-19 cases is relatively limited in Kenya, the anticipation of Covid-19 arrives much earlier than any exponential growth of infections, and so do the measures in response to it. Even in the absence of Covid-19 cases, t...
Primary Topic: Health, physical & mental
Secondary Topic: Inequality & poverty
Lead investigator: Wendy Janssens
Countries
Food and nutrition security in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia during Covid‑19 pandemic
On March 13th, the first Covid-19 case was confirmed in Ethiopia. Three days later, the government closed schools, banned all public gatherings and sporting activities, and recommended social distancing. Other measures to contain the spread of the vi...
Primary Topic: Families & households
Secondary Topic: Inequality & poverty
Lead investigator: Kalle Hirvonen
Countries
How the Covid-19 lockdown affected gender inequality in paid and unpaid work in Spain
The Covid-19 pandemic led many countries to close schools and declare lockdowns during the spring of 2020, with important impacts on the labor market. We document the effects of the Covid-19 lockdown in spain, which was hit early and hard by the pand...
Primary Topic: Jobs, work, pay & benefits
Secondary Topic: Inequality & poverty
Lead investigator: Lidia Farre
Countries
The impact of Covid-19 on paid and unpaid work in the family: an international comparison
The Covid-19 pandemic has led governments worldwide to lock down their counties for several weeks. With the aim to curb the spread of the virus, most people have had to stay at home, working from their dwelling, and schools are closed. The quarantine...
Primary Topic: Families & households
Secondary Topic: Inequality & poverty
Lead investigator: Lídia Farré
Are palliative cash transfers effective to counteract the effects of stay-at-home orders? evidence from Peru
Several governments in LAC are increasingly imposing mandatory quarantines for all citizens to contain the expansion of the Covid-19 pandemic. These measures have proved to be the most effective to flatten the curve, but their downside are the econom...
Primary Topic: Jobs, work, pay & benefits
Secondary Topic: Inequality & poverty
Lead investigator: Matthew Bird
Countries
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...
Primary Topic: Health, physical & mental
Secondary Topic: Inequality & poverty
Lead investigator: Francis Annan
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...
Primary Topic: Health, physical & mental
Secondary Topic: Inequality & poverty
Lead investigator: Apostolos Davillas
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
Gender equality in work and Covid-19 deaths
On average, women comprise a smaller share of deaths from Covid-19. Variation in the share of Covid-19 deaths for women across countries and US States suggests that biological factors cannot fully account for this gender difference. I hypothesize tha...
Primary Topic: Jobs, work, pay & benefits
Secondary Topic: Inequality & poverty
Lead investigator: Renée Adams
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
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
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
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 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
Impact of Covid–19 lockdown on the socio-economic condition of informal sector wage workers in India
Outbreak of COVID – 19 pandemic, and nationwide unprecedented lockdown has brought a grinding halt to economic activities, adversely affecting the life and livelihood of informal sector wage workers. They are struggling on two fronts of life: one i...
Primary Topic: Jobs, work, pay & benefits
Secondary Topic: Inequality & poverty
Lead investigator: Archanca Srivastava
Countries
Covid-19 and disadvantage in New York City: a study using data from the Robin Hood and Columbia University poverty tracker and early childhood poverty tracker
Within two weeks, the Covid-19 pandemic drastically altered life in New York City, wreaking havoc on the personal and economic health of the City’s population. This study employs data from the Robin Hood and Columbia University Poverty Tracker and ...
Primary Topic: Jobs, work, pay & benefits
Secondary Topic: Inequality & poverty
Lead investigator: Jane Waldfogel
Countries
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
Effect of Covid-19 and the enacted policy measures on individual travel behavior
Between August 2019 and January 2020, we carried out a large-scale tracking study involving 3,000 people in Switzerland. Participants were tracked using the GPS –based travel diary app “Catch my Day” for a total of 8 weeks based on a rolling re...
Primary Topic: Attitudes, media & governance
Secondary Topic: Inequality & poverty
Lead investigator: Beat Hintermann
Countries
Changes in higher order risk attitudes during a pandemic: the impact of rapid increases in health background risk on financial decisions
Individuals make economic decisions while being exposed to a multitude of risks that they cannot completely control: risks such as pandemics, chronic illnesses, income instability or environmental hazards. One of these risks is the current coronaviru...
Primary Topic: Health, physical & mental
Secondary Topic: Inequality & poverty
Lead investigator: Abdul H. Kidwai
Countries
Heterogeneous vulnerability to the Covid-19 crisis in Japan
We study how the Covid-19 crisis could affect earnings inequality across heterogeneous individuals in Japan. We use the Employment Structure Basic Survey by Statistics Bureau of Japan to identify groups of workers who are more susceptible to the shoc...
Primary Topic: Jobs, work, pay & benefits
Secondary Topic: Inequality & poverty
Lead investigator: Shinnosuke Kikuchi
Countries
