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The effect of income support programs on job search, workplace mobility and COVID-19: International evidence

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  • Asfaw, Abraham Abebe

Abstract

This study examines the effect of Income Support Programs (ISPs) on job search effort, work- place mobility, COVID-19 cases, and mortality growth rates. To identify ISPs’ causal effect, I use the variation in their introductions’ timing across countries and implement a difference-in-difference and multi-event analysis method. I find that ISPs led to a 4.4–8.29 percentage points reduction in workplace mobility and a 6.6–11.6 percentage points reduction in job search effort levels. They also caused a 21.8–47.7 and 17.1–29.7 percentage points reduction in the COVID-19 case growth rate and COVID-19 mortality growth rates, respectively. Using the event analysis estimates, I simulated the counterfactual job search effort, workplace mobility, and the number of COVID-19 cases and mortality without income support programs. The average global job search effort and workplace mobility without ISPs would have been 11.12 and 9.26 percent higher than the observed mean job search effort and workplace mobility. However, these would have come at the cost of 3.69 million and 166, 690 additional COVID-19 cases and mortality than the cases and deaths registered by May 15th.

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  • Asfaw, Abraham Abebe, 2021. "The effect of income support programs on job search, workplace mobility and COVID-19: International evidence," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 41(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ehbiol:v:41:y:2021:i:c:s1570677x21000216
    DOI: 10.1016/j.ehb.2021.100997
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    1. Maya Hammad & Fabianna Bacil & Fábio Veras Soares, 2021. "Next Practices—Innovations in the COVID-19 social protection responses and beyond," Research Report 60, International Policy Centre.
    2. Sen, Anindya & Baker, John David & Zhang, Qihuang & Agarwal, Rishav Raj & Lam, Jean-Paul, 2023. "Do more stringent policies reduce daily COVID-19 case counts? Evidence from Canadian provinces," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 225-242.
    3. Mohd Yusof Saari & Kabiru Maji Ibrahim & Muzafar Shah Habibullah, 2022. "Assessing the Income Distributional Effect of Lockdowns in Malaysia," Journal of Economic Impact, Science Impact Publishers, vol. 4(1), pages 132-138.
    4. Arian Daneshmanda & Ali Mazyaki & Mohammad Reza Farzanegan & Mohammad Javad Gheidari, 2024. "Optimizing Social Assistance Strategies in Response to the COVID-19 Crisis," MAGKS Papers on Economics 202422, Philipps-Universität Marburg, Faculty of Business Administration and Economics, Department of Economics (Volkswirtschaftliche Abteilung).
    5. Fırat Bilgel & Burhan Can Karahasan, 2024. "Understanding Covid-19 Mobility Through Human Capital: A Unified Causal Framework," Computational Economics, Springer;Society for Computational Economics, vol. 63(2), pages 793-833, February.

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    Keywords

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    JEL classification:

    • I1 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health
    • I3 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty
    • J3 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs

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