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.
In crisis we pray: religiosity and the Covid-19 pandemic
In times of crisis, humans have a tendency to turn to religion for comfort and explanation. The 2020 Covid-19 pandemic is no exception. Daily data on Google searches for 95 countries demonstrates that the Covid-19 crisis has increased Google searches...
Primary Topic: Attitudes, media & governance
Lead investigator: Jeanet Sinding Bentzen
Grey rhinos in financial markets and venue selection: the case of Covid-19
We investigate the effects of the Covid-19-induced shock in financial markets on aggregate venue selection/market share and market quality. We find that the shock is linked with an economically significant loss of market share by dark pools to lit ex...
Primary Topic: Banks & financial markets
Secondary Topic: Prices & interest rates
Lead investigator: Gbenga Ibikunle
Remittances in the time of Covid-19. Evidence from Mexico
Remittance flows to low-and middle-income countries are one of the main contributors to economic growth and development. Since mid-1900s, these flows have exceeded official aid by a factor of three and they overtook foreign direct investment flows to...
Primary Topic: Inequality & poverty
Secondary Topic: Nations, regions & cities
Lead investigator: Lelys Dinarte
The effects of Covid-19 on the gender gap in academic research productivity
The rapid spread of the new coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic and the subsequent counter-measures, such as school closures, shift to working from home, and social distancing are disrupting economic activity around the world. As with other major economi...
Primary Topic: Families & households
Secondary Topic: Inequality & poverty
Lead investigator: Tatyana Deryugina
“Do governors lead or follow? timing of stay-at-home orders”
I use daily Google search data on the keyword ``Coronavirus" to track early resident interest in the novel Coronavirus pandemic. I ask whether governors are responding to heightened interest (i.e., following) or if their decisions are independen...
Primary Topic: Attitudes, media & governance
Lead investigator: Bryan C. McCannon
Countries
The Covid-19 bailouts
US policy makers responded to the Covid-19 epidemic by providing $1.8 trillion in private sector bailouts. We collect data on all bailouts for publicly-listed firms, document empirical facts of the bailout programs and discuss policy implications. Mo...
Primary Topic: Business, big & small
Lead investigator: Jean-Marie Meier
Countries
Restarting the economy while saving lives under Covid-19
We provide, calibrate and test a realistic model of the spread of SARS-Cov-2 in an economy where the population has different age groups and sectors. The model takes into account factors that have proved to be essential in explaining features of the ...
Primary Topic: Attitudes, media & governance
Secondary Topic: Health, physical & mental
Lead investigator: Carlo Favero
Countries
The impact of Covid-19 lockdown on employment and mental health
Enforcing social distancing via economy-wide lockdown is considered as an effective measure to prevent transmission of the novel coronavirus Covid-19. Consequently, accompanied by a large number of job losses, a lockdown has severe labor market and e...
Primary Topic: Jobs, work, pay & benefits
Secondary Topic: Health, physical & mental
Lead investigator: Kabir Dasgupta
Countries
Lock-down or let-it-flow: a spatial analysis of Covid-19 on Chinese economy
This paper studies the impacts of the outbreak of the Covid-19 and the lock-down policy on the Chinese economy. Combining the changes of daily migration flow data, industrial outputs data, population census data, and a spatial equilibrium model, we q...
Primary Topic: Recession & recovery
Secondary Topic: Jobs, work, pay & benefits
Lead investigator: Minjie Deng
Countries
Our relationship with food during the Covid-19 pandemic
It has been clear for many years that policies and strategies are needed to transform towards more sustainable food systems. Now during the Covid-19 pandemic, food production, processing and distribution systems have been put under severe pressure. A...
Primary Topic: Recession & recovery
Secondary Topic: Attitudes, media & governance
Lead investigator: Jeremy Millard
Epidemic spreads of Covid-19 narratives and their effect on financial phenomena.
We identify and retrieve the most salient Covid-19 narratives and their evolution over time via text mining on daily open-ended questionnaires sent to US stockholders since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic. This data is complemented with over 3...
Primary Topic: Business, big & small
Secondary Topic: Attitudes, media & governance
Lead investigator: Daniel Borup
Countries
Asset price expectations during the financial crash of the Covid-19 pandemic
We measure daily price expectations about the share prices of six well-known publicly traded companies in the U.S. in an incentivized online experiment for a period of three months. Coincidentally, our experiment started on 19/02/2020, just one day b...
Primary Topic: Attitudes, media & governance
Secondary Topic: Prices & interest rates
Lead investigator: Carlos Cueva
Countries
Emotional states and the Covid-19 pandemic: evolution, national differences, and their relationship with emergency policies
We propose to study the effect of Covid-19 on the emotional states of people in OECD and other countries by applying content analysis to internet searches recorded via Google Trends since 31 December 2019. Our aim is to understand how emotional state...
Primary Topic: Attitudes, media & governance
Lead investigator: Zhiming Cheng
Viral narratives: evidence from media outlets during Covid
Culture provides heuristics for decision-making that are developed as part of the evolutionary process (Richardson and Boyd, 1985, Nunn 2015). In this project, we aim to trace the evolution of narratives as a particular form of heuristic regarding th...
Primary Topic: Attitudes, media & governance
Secondary Topic: Lessons from history
Lead investigator: Arthur Blouin
Countries
Rationing social contact during the Covid-19 pandemic: transmission risk and social benefits of US locations
To prevent the spread of Covid-19, some types of stores and gathering places have been shut down while others remain open. The decision to shut down one type of location and leave another open constitutes a judgement about the relative danger and ben...
Primary Topic: Attitudes, media & governance
Lead investigator: Seth Benzell
Countries
U.S. state Covid-19 stay at home orders: were they driven by scientific, economic, or ideological factors?
What factors affected whether or not a U.S. state governor issued a statewide stay-at-home order in response to the Covid-19 pandemic of early 2020? Once issued, what factors affected the length of this stay-at-home order? Using duration analysis, we...
Primary Topic: Attitudes, media & governance
Secondary Topic: Recession & recovery
Lead investigator: Lea-Rachel Kosnik
Countries
First to reach is last to forgive: evidence from the stock market impact of Covid-19
During December of 2019, the world became aware of a new global-scale threat called at first as Coronavirus, which changed the lives of millions of people around the globe. The coronavirus had multiple impacts regarding public policies, economic prod...
Primary Topic: Recession & recovery
Secondary Topic: Prices & interest rates
Lead investigator: Sherif M. Hassan
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...
Primary Topic: Attitudes, media & governance
Secondary Topic: Jobs, work, pay & benefits
Lead investigator: Roberto Iacono
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...
Primary Topic: Science, technology & innovation
Lead investigator: Guojon He
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...
Primary Topic: Health, physical & mental
Lead investigator: Talita Greyling
Countries
