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.
Resilience of the UK seafood system to the Covid-19 disruption (RiseUp)
The UK seafood industry is under unprecedented pressure to deliver on national food security during Covid-19/SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, while trying to adapt to remain socio-economically viable. However, no data exists on the systemic impacts to the UK sea...
Primary Topic: Business, big & small
Secondary Topic: Recession & recovery
Lead investigator: Sofia C. Franco
Countries
Understanding and explaining management practices to promote higher productivity in UK businesses
Extending ONS-Economic Statistics Centre of Excellence (ESCoE), Management and Expectations Survey (MES) of ~25,000 businesses with 10+ employees drawn from and linked to the 2016 Annual Business Survey sample.
Primary Topic: Business, big & small
Secondary Topic: Jobs, work, pay & benefits
Lead investigator: Rebecca Riley
Countries
Rescuing a `sick’ labour market: using online vacancy data to track Covid-19’s economic impact
This project aims to identify the impact of Covid-19 and consequent lockdown measures on labour demand, using unique real-time data on UK online job postings, combined with text analysis and causal econometric research designs. - Firstly, we will con...
Primary Topic: Jobs, work, pay & benefits
Lead investigator: Mirko Draca
Countries
Measuring the impact of Brexit/Covid-19 on UK investment, sales and productivity
Researching impact of Covid-19 via ongoing decision maker panel on sales, employment, capital and requirements/availability of credit, working patterns, non-labour inputs, business expectations.
Primary Topic: Business, big & small
Secondary Topic: Jobs, work, pay & benefits
Lead investigator: Paul Mizen
Countries
Covid-19 and VCSE organisations response
According to a recent government report (DCMS 06/05/2020) the voluntary community and social enterprise (VCSE) sector is “fighting for survival”, with increased demand for its services, whilst simultaneously facing funding cuts estimated at £4.3...
Primary Topic: Charities & volunteering
Secondary Topic: Business, big & small
Lead investigator: Daniel King
Countries
Entrepreneurial resiliency, innovation, and change during the Covid-19 crisis
The project will address this gap while producing immediately useful information for entrepreneurs and policymakers about how the impacts of the crisis change over time and how firms can build strategic resiliency in the face of an unprecedented cris...
Primary Topic: Science, technology & innovation
Secondary Topic: Business, big & small
Lead investigator: Benjamin Spigel
Countries
The real-time economic effects of Covid-19 in the United Kingdom
This project will examine the microeconomic impacts of the Covid pandemic and lockdown on UK businesses and its interaction with the UK’s decision to leave the European Union. The project will deliver two key outputs, which are fundamental to desig...
Primary Topic: Business, big & small
Secondary Topic: Attitudes, media & governance
Lead investigator: Swati Dhingra
Countries
Covid-19: measuring the effects of Covid-19 on businesses and the UK economy
This application addresses two of the key objectives of this grant scheme by a) gathering critical data on the business response to Covid-19 quickly for immediate policy and future research use, b) providing new research with a clear impact pathway t...
Primary Topic: Business, big & small
Lead investigator: Paul Mizen
Countries
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
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
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
Attitudes towards debt in corporate decision-making: evidence from the Covid-19 pandemic
We study the e?ect of an entrepreneur’s attitude towards debt on the financial policies of the businesses they run. Using a survey of 1,009 Finnish SMEs, we test whether a manager’s attitude towards debt affects their likelihood of using debt-bas...
Primary Topic: Attitudes, media & governance
Secondary Topic: Business, big & small
Lead investigator: Mikael Paaso
Countries
The impact of Covid-19 on small business employment and hours: real-time estimates with homebase data
We use worker-firm matched data from Homebase to construct new real-time estimates of the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on employment and hours worked of small businesses. We find four key results: (1) employment of small businesses in four of the ...
Primary Topic: Jobs, work, pay & benefits
Secondary Topic: Business, big & small
Lead investigator: Andre Kurmann
Countries
Small business under the Covid-19 crisis: expected short- and medium-run effects of anti-contagion and economic policies
During the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) crisis, governments around the world have implemented large-scale anti-contagion policies to contain the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus in combination with a series of economic policies to mitigate the econom...
Primary Topic: Business, big & small
Secondary Topic: Attitudes, media & governance
Lead investigator: Kohei Kawaguchi
Countries
The effects of emergency government cash transfers on beliefs and behaviours during the Covid pandemic: evidence from Brazil
This project aims to evaluate the impact of emergency cash transfers on workers’ beliefs about the coronavirus. It focused on the impacts of ‘Auxilio Emergencial’, a cash grant provided to low-income households in response to income falls cause...
Primary Topic: Attitudes, media & governance
Secondary Topic: Jobs, work, pay & benefits
Lead investigator: Fernanda Leite Lopez de Leon
Countries
The unequal effects of Covid-19 on economists' research productivity
The current lock-down measures are expected to disproportionately reduce women’s labor productivity in the short run. This paper analyzes the effects of these measures on economists' research productivity. We explore the patterns of working pa...
Primary Topic: Inequality & poverty
Secondary Topic: Families & households
Lead investigator: Noriko Amano-Patino
Covid-19: industry level origins of changes in economic welfare
We provide an analysis of how the decline in aggregate UK economic welfare caused by Covid-19 is related to industry-level measures of economic activity. By exploiting data on asset prices, we perform our analysis in real time. We find significant as...
Primary Topic: Health, physical & mental
Secondary Topic: Prices & interest rates
Lead investigator: Harjoat S. Bhamra
Countries
The economic effects of Covid-19 and credit constraints: evidence from Italian firms' expectations and plans
We investigate the economic effects of the Covid-19 pandemic and the role played by credit constraints in the transmission mechanism, using a novel survey of expectations and plans of Italian firms, taken just before and after the outbreak. Most firm...
Primary Topic: Attitudes, media & governance
Secondary Topic: Recession & recovery
Lead investigator: Pierluigi Balduzzi
Countries
How online gig economy reshapes the international labour market amid Covid-19
Enabled by the Internet technology, online digital employment platforms have presented opportunities for employers and freelancers to find each other regardless of their physical locations and at lower administrative and search costs. The evolution o...
Primary Topic: Jobs, work, pay & benefits
Secondary Topic: Business, big & small
Lead investigator: Yuan Gao
Information search and financial market performance under pandemic: evidence from Covid-19
The discovery, and subsequent spread, of the novel coronavirus (Covid-19) exposed both individuals and investors to a grave uncertainty about the potential health and economic ramifications of the virus, particularly in the early days and weeks of th...
Primary Topic: Attitudes, media & governance
Secondary Topic: Recession & recovery
Lead investigator: Behzod B. Ahundjanov
Countries
