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.
Social connections with Covid-19-affected areas increase compliance with mobility restrictions
We study the role of social connections in households’ responses to mobility restrictions imposed amid the Covid-19 epidemic, using aggregated and anonymized Facebook data on social connections and mobile phone data for tracking movement. Measured ...
Primary Topic: Inequality & poverty
Secondary Topic: Families & households
Lead investigator: Ben Charoenwong
Countries
How does the Covid-19 crisis affect access to mental health care? evidence from an audit field experiment in the United States
Crises such as pandemics and recessions increase mental illness and suicidality. Care from mental health professionals (MHPs) such as counselors, therapists, and psychologists, can help people affected by these conditions. However, little is known as...
Primary Topic: Health, physical & mental
Lead investigator: Patrick Button
Countries
Nowcasting (real-time estimates of) aggregate economic activity and financial stability risks using national payment system data during Covid-19 outbreak.
Our goal is to construct a reliable measure to estimate the economic activity and financial stability risk in real time. We use a unique dataset obtained from the National Payment System (NPS) of the Bank of Russia. Dataset is updated daily and conta...
Primary Topic: Business, big & small
Lead investigator: Anna Burova
Countries
Daily monitoring of economic activity in North America by electricity consumption
Amid the Covid-19 outbreak, governments across the globe mandated lockdowns that brought economic activity to an abrupt halt. In normal times, to gauge about the level of economic activity, policymakers consider an extensive set of macroeconomic data...
Primary Topic: Recession & recovery
Secondary Topic: Jobs, work, pay & benefits
Lead investigator: Tatjana Dahlhaus
Tracking the economic impact of Covid-19 in Europe and the United States
We use high-frequency indicators available with little or no delay to obtain estimates of the economic impact of Covid-19 in Europe and the United States. We highlight the following findings. (1) Energy usage in Europe suggest that GDP has declined b...
Primary Topic: Recession & recovery
Secondary Topic: Jobs, work, pay & benefits
Lead investigator: Sophia Chen
Entering the labour market during a pandemic: scarring effects and youth unemployment
This research aims to investigate the consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic for labour market entrants, in particular the scarring effects on university graduates and the impact on youth unemployment. Macroeconomists have described the pandemic-drive...
Primary Topic: Jobs, work, pay & benefits
Secondary Topic: Schools, universities & training
Lead investigator: Francesco Amodio
Contagion and migration in South Asia
The lockdown in South Asia has led to mass migration of people back to their home towns/villages as the work opportunities in urban centres shrink or are no longer available. This poses a public health risk to rural areas as migrants may spread the v...
Primary Topic: Inequality & poverty
Secondary Topic: Health, physical & mental
Lead investigator: Jean Nahrae Lee
Countries
The impact of Covid-19 on consumption and income inequality
The Covid-19 pandemic has had large economic consequences in the US, directly contributing to soaring unemployment and massively depressed demand. Such rapid changes in household economic characteristics can certainly affect earnings, income, and con...
Primary Topic: Recession & recovery
Secondary Topic: Jobs, work, pay & benefits
Lead investigator: Loujaina Abdelwahed
Countries
Early evidence of the impact of Covid-19 and the recession on older workers in the United States
We summarize the early effects, and anticipated future effects, of the Covid-19 pandemic and resulting recession on older workers in the United States. We start by discussing what we know about how older workers faired in prior recessions in the Unit...
Primary Topic: Recession & recovery
Secondary Topic: Jobs, work, pay & benefits
Lead investigator: Patrick Button
Countries
Global evidence on the determinants of public trust in governments during the Covid-19
Using the Worldwide Covid-19 Attitudes and Beliefs dataset covering 108,918 respondents from 178 countries, the paper examines the determinants of public trust in governments during the Covid-19. It is found that older and healthy people trust more t...
Primary Topic: Attitudes, media & governance
Secondary Topic: Nations, regions & cities
Lead investigator: Giray Gozgor
Job search during the Covid-19 crisis
This paper measures the job-search responses to the Covid-19 pandemic using real-time data on vacancy postings and ad views on Sweden's largest online job board. First, vacancy postings drop by 40%, similar to the US. Second, job seekers respond...
Primary Topic: Jobs, work, pay & benefits
Lead investigator: Lena Hensvik
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
International trade during a pandemic: boon or bane? a structural gravity approach
We empirically estimate the effects of the Corona pandemic on international trade. One hypothesis is that economies with a high degree of trade diversification are less harmed by pandemic-induced disruptions of trade flows. This analysis will give re...
Primary Topic: Trade & supply chains
Secondary Topic: Recession & recovery
Lead investigator: Daniel Osberghaus
Countries
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
Job search behaviour in the united states during the Covid-19 pandemic
This study examines the effect of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) on U.S. job search activity by developing sectoral and state-level job search indices. We document that Covid-19 has a significantly negative effect on job search, and that this eff...
Primary Topic: Jobs, work, pay & benefits
Lead investigator: Wei-Fong Pan
Countries
The impact of Covid-19 on us stock market: Fama-French models
The paper evaluates the performance of Fama-French models on US stock during Covid-19. All data used in constructed models have origination from Fama-French official website from 1st January 2000 to 31st March 2020. (Fama and French 2020). The result...
Primary Topic: Business, big & small
Secondary Topic: Prices & interest rates
Lead investigator: Dominik Horvath
Countries
Economics of Covid-19 multilateral foreign aid
This paper provides an empirical study of the link between Covid-19 aid to developing countries by multilateral organizations and the level of democracy in the recipient countries. In particular, we test whether developing countries with lower level ...
Primary Topic: Aid & international development
Secondary Topic: Nations, regions & cities
Lead investigator: Sherzod B. Akhundjanov
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 impact of shutdown policies on unemployment during a pandemic
We use high-frequency Google search data, combined with data on the announcement dates of nonpharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) during the Covid-19 pandemic in U.S. states, to isolate the impact of NPIs on unemployment in an event-study framework. E...
Primary Topic: Jobs, work, pay & benefits
Lead investigator: Edward Kong
Countries
School closures, shelter-in-place, and crime and legal proceedings
Across the world, Covid-19 shelter-in-place rules have limited mobility and required most adults and children stay at home. Men and women face increased stress from fear of coronavirus infection, economic uncertainty, job loss, or increased child-car...
Primary Topic: Crime & policing
Secondary Topic: Health, physical & mental
Lead investigator: Scott Cunningham
Countries
