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The Distribution of COVID-19 Related Risks

Author

Listed:
  • Patrick Baylis
  • Pierre-Loup Beauregard
  • Marie Connolly
  • Nicole Fortin
  • David A. Green
  • Pablo Gutierrez Cubillos
  • Sam Gyetvay
  • Catherine Haeck
  • Timea Laura Molnar
  • Gaëlle Simard-Duplain
  • Henry E. Siu
  • Maria teNyenhuis
  • Casey Warman

Abstract

This paper documents two COVID-related risks, viral risk and employment risk, and their distributions across the Canadian population. The measurement of viral risk is based on the VSE COVID Risk/Reward Assessment Tool, created to assist policymakers in determining the impacts of economic shutdowns and re-openings over the course of the pandemic. We document that women are more concentrated in high viral risk occupations and that this is the source of their greater employment loss over the course of the pandemic so far. They were also less likely to maintain one form of contact with their former employers, reducing employment recovery rates. Low educated workers face the same virus risk rates as high educated workers but much higher employment losses. Based on a rough counterfactual exercise, this is largely accounted for by their lower likelihood of switching to working from home which, in turn, is related to living conditions such as living in crowded dwellings. For both women and the low educated, existing inequities in their occupational distributions and living situations have resulted in them bearing a disproportionate amount of the risk emerging from the pandemic. Assortative matching in couples has tended to exacerbate risk inequities.

Suggested Citation

  • Patrick Baylis & Pierre-Loup Beauregard & Marie Connolly & Nicole Fortin & David A. Green & Pablo Gutierrez Cubillos & Sam Gyetvay & Catherine Haeck & Timea Laura Molnar & Gaëlle Simard-Duplain & Henr, 2020. "The Distribution of COVID-19 Related Risks," NBER Working Papers 27881, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:27881
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Alex Chernoff & Casey Warman, 2023. "COVID-19 and implications for automation," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 55(17), pages 1939-1957, April.
    2. Hanley, Brenda J. & Carstensen, Michelle & Walsh, Daniel P. & Christensen, Sonja A. & Storm, Daniel J. & Booth, James G. & Guinness, Joseph & Them, Cara E. & Ahmed, Md Sohel & Schuler, Krysten L., 2022. "Informing Surveillance through the Characterization of Outbreak Potential of Chronic Wasting Disease in White-Tailed Deer," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 471(C).
    3. Pierre Brochu & Jonathan Créchet, 2021. "Survey Non-response in Covid-19 Times: The Case of the Labour Force Survey," Working Papers 2109E, University of Ottawa, Department of Economics.
    4. Bellatin, Alejandra & Galassi, Gabriela, 2022. "What COVID-19 May Leave Behind: Technology-Related Job Postings in Canada," IZA Discussion Papers 15209, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    5. Maryna Tverdostup, 2021. "Gender Gaps in Employment, Wages, and Work Hours: Assessment of COVID-19 Implications," wiiw Working Papers 202, The Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies, wiiw.

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • E32 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Prices, Business Fluctuations, and Cycles - - - Business Fluctuations; Cycles
    • I18 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Government Policy; Regulation; Public Health
    • J15 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Minorities, Races, Indigenous Peoples, and Immigrants; Non-labor Discrimination
    • J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
    • J21 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Labor Force and Employment, Size, and Structure

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