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.
Covid-19: The local as a site of food security resilience in the times of pandemic: opportunities, challenges and ways forward.
The Covid-19 pandemic has significantly impacted on the UK’s food systems, and disruptions are likely to continue. There is emerging evidence that the local food sector (local food producers and their supply chains) can significantly contribute to ...
Primary Topic: Trade & supply chains
Secondary Topic: Business, big & small
Lead investigator: Anna Krzywoszynska
Countries
Necessary discussions: advance care planning for nursing homes in a Covid-19 outbreak
It is likely that nursing homes in the UK will become clusters in their communities for the worst clinical manifestations of Covid-19 (1). Since all nursing home residents are at substantial risk, nursing home care staff need to know what residents w...
Primary Topic: Health, physical & mental
Lead investigator: Kevin Brazil
Countries
Covid-19: what are the drivers of the Islamophobic infodemic communications on social media
The research project will examine the interaction between miscommunications and conspiracy theories in relation to key factors such as anonymity, membership length and peer groups, within the context of the current Covid-19 pandemic on social media. ...
Primary Topic: Attitudes, media & governance
Lead investigator: Imran Awan
Countries
Assessing financial vulnerability and risk in the UK's charities during and beyond the Covid-19 crisis
This research will provide an analysis of the variegated impacts on charities of the very severe financial constraints they will experience due to the immediate and longer-term economic effects of the Covid-19 crisis. Building on our extensive prior ...
Primary Topic: Charities & volunteering
Lead investigator: John Mohan
Countries
The impact of Covid-19 restrictions on recreation and use of green space in Wales
The use of green spaces for recreation has acknowledged benefits for physical and mental health, to the extent of reducing mortality rates [1]. Green spaces include parks and gardens in urban areas, and the wider countryside in more rural settings. T...
Primary Topic: Attitudes, media & governance
Secondary Topic: Health, physical & mental
Lead investigator: Julia Jones
Countries
Real-time evaluation of the effects of Covid-19 and policy responses on consumer and small business finances
The project involves the creation of a new real-time economic characterisation of consumer and firm behaviour from mass transaction data. Specifically, the work will evaluate impact on consumer finances (reduced incomes, non-payment of debts, pattern...
Primary Topic: Business, big & small
Lead investigator: Neil Stewart
Countries
Covid-19: Families, children aged 0-4 and pregnant women: vulnerabilities, resources and recovery in Tower Hamlets
Adverse impacts of the current Covid-19 pandemic will disproportionately fall on individuals and families at the lower end of the income distribution. The highly diverse population profile offers an opportunity to identify how families deploy their i...
Primary Topic: Families & households
Secondary Topic: Inequality & poverty
Lead investigator: Claire Cameron
Countries
Reducing the unanticipated crime harms of Covid-19 policies
The Covid-19 crisis is changing the shape of crime. Drawing on crime science, this research will inform evidence-based policy and practice. we will anticipate crime effects of prolonged, graduated or cyclical exit strategies. We will use (1) national...
Primary Topic: Crime & policing
Lead investigator: Graham Farrell
Countries
The geography of post Covid-19 shutdown recovery risk in UK economic activity. implications for recovery inequality and targeted stimulus
The Covid-19 shutdown is not affecting all parts of the UK equally. Economic activity in local consumer service industries (LCSI), such as retail outlets, restaurants, hairdressers, or gardeners has all but stopped; other industries are less affected...
Primary Topic: Recession & recovery
Secondary Topic: Inequality & poverty
Lead investigator: Jesse Matheson
Countries
A longitudinal mixed-methods population study of the UK during the Covid-19 pandemic: psychological and social adjustment to global threat
The impact of the Covid19 pandemic on public mental health will affect need for services, further progress or resolution of the pandemic and speed of economic recovery afterwards. Policymakers have emphasised the need for a whole population approach ...
Primary Topic: Health, physical & mental
Secondary Topic: Attitudes, media & governance
Lead investigator: Richard Bentall
Countries
Covid-19 app store and data flow ecologies
Mobile phone applications (apps) have emerged as a key part of the response to Covid-19 around the world and are a feature of UK government plans to manage ‘phase two’. While raising concerns from privacy and security to the adoption rates requir...
Primary Topic: Science, technology & innovation
Secondary Topic: Attitudes, media & governance
Lead investigator: Michael Dieter
Countries
Child protection and social distancing: improving the capacity of social workers to keep children safe during the Covid-19 pandemic
This research will explore the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on child protection, social workers and service users, with specific reference to the novel use of digital technologies in a period of institutionalised social distancing.
Primary Topic: Charities & volunteering
Secondary Topic: Health, physical & mental
Lead investigator: Harry Ferguson
Countries
Food system impacts of Covid-19
This research will examine the extent of continuity and dislocation in the supply chain across dairy products, meat, fresh fruit and vegetables, and fish. They will look at instances of radical changes in routes to markets and the barriers to change;...
Primary Topic: Trade & supply chains
Secondary Topic: Business, big & small
Lead investigator: D. Michael Winter
Countries
Understanding Society Covid-19 study
Understanding Society has launched a new monthly survey to look at the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the UK population. This has been funded by ESRC though the study’s discretionary budget and a £200k award from the Health Foundation. The ...
Primary Topic: Health, physical & mental
Secondary Topic: Inequality & poverty
Lead investigator: Michaela Benzeval
Countries
Impact of Covid-19 on staff mental health and well-being in SMEs: strategies and interventions to support workforce and boost productivity in the UK
Covid-19 pandemic has led governments globally to respond with unprecedented lockdown and economic measures to combat spread of the disease, and support workers and businesses. The pandemic presents a real threat to small and medium sized enterprises...
Primary Topic: Health, physical & mental
Secondary Topic: Jobs, work, pay & benefits
Lead investigator: Prasanta Kumar Dey
Countries
The effects of social distancing policies on children’s language development, sleep and executive functions.
The environments children grow up in heavily influence key elements of cognitive development such as language and executive functions, which in turn associate with later educational and occupational attainment as well as health and wellbeing (1–8)....
Primary Topic: Health, physical & mental
Secondary Topic: Schools, universities & training
Lead investigator: Nayeli Gonzalez-Gomez
Countries
Disabled people and Covid-19 in the UK
Disabled people are vulnerable to health and social impacts of Covid-19. For many, their support needs and their impairments make them more susceptible to the condition and increase the risk of mortality. This qualitative study will explore disabled ...
Primary Topic: Health, physical & mental
Secondary Topic: Charities & volunteering
Lead investigator: Tom Shakespeare
Countries
Covid-19: identifying effective remote literacy teaching methods for primary-aged children
This research project stems from a direct appeal from our UK teacher collaborators, who suddenly face having to teach pupils online, with scant training and patchy evidence on how to do so effectively. We aim to identify effective remote, evidence-ba...
Primary Topic: Schools, universities & training
Lead investigator: Manon Jones
Countries
A duty of care and a duty to teach: educational priorities in response to the Covid-19 lockdown
This research explores the challenges the Covid-19 crisis sets primary schools, using surveys and telephone interviews to analyse how teachers weigh a duty of care (for their pupils’ well-being and welfare) and a duty to teach (given their responsi...
Primary Topic: Schools, universities & training
Lead investigator: Gemma Moss
Countries
Supporting fiscal policy decisions in the crisis
We are going through an economic crisis. The government has responded with an unprecedented policy package, costing many tens of billions of pounds over just a few months – paying for employees to be furloughed, making payments to the self-employed...
Primary Topic: Families & households
Secondary Topic: Recession & recovery
Lead investigator: Paul Johnson
Countries
