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On Covid-19: New Implications of Job Task Requirements and Spouse's Occupational Sorting

Author

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  • Nuarpear Lekfuangfu
  • Suphanit Piyapromdee
  • Ponpoje Porapakkarm
  • Nada Wasi

Abstract

The Covid-19 pandemic has disrupted working life in many ways, the negative consequences of which may be distributed unevenly under lockdown regulations. In this paper, we construct a new set of pandemic-related indices from the Occupational Information Network (O*NET) using factor analysis. The indices capture two key dimensions of job task requirements: (i) the extent to which jobs can be adaptable to work from home; and (ii) the degree of infection risk at workplace. The interaction of these two dimensions help identify which groups of workers are more vulnerable to income losses, and which groups of occupations pose more risk to public health. This information is crucial for both designing appropriate supporting programs and finding a strategy to reopen the economy while controlling the spread of the virus. In our application, we map the indices to the labor force survey of a developing country, Thailand, to analyze these new labor market risks. We document differences in job characteristics across income groups, at both individual and household levels. First, low income individuals tend to work in occupations that require less physical interaction (lower risk of infection) but are less adaptable to work from home (higher risk of income/job loss) than high income people. Second, the positive occupational sorting among low-income couples amplifies these differences at the household level. Consequently, low-income families tend to face a disproportionately larger risk of income/job loss from lockdown measures. In addition, the different exposure to infection and income risks between income groups can play an important role in shaping up the timing and optimal strategies to unlock the economy.

Suggested Citation

  • Nuarpear Lekfuangfu & Suphanit Piyapromdee & Ponpoje Porapakkarm & Nada Wasi, 2020. "On Covid-19: New Implications of Job Task Requirements and Spouse's Occupational Sorting," PIER Discussion Papers 133, Puey Ungphakorn Institute for Economic Research.
  • Handle: RePEc:pui:dpaper:133
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Sasiwimon Warunsiri Paweenawat & Lusi Liao, 2024. "Who Suffers the Most During the COVID‐19 Pandemic? Evidence From Thailand," The Developing Economies, Institute of Developing Economies, vol. 62(3), pages 238-268, September.
    2. Adams-Prassl, Abi & Boneva, Teodora & Golin, Marta & Rauh, Christopher, 2022. "Work that can be done from home: evidence on variation within and across occupations and industries," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).
    3. Simon Mongey & Laura Pilossoph & Alexander Weinberg, 2021. "Which workers bear the burden of social distancing?," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 19(3), pages 509-526, September.
    4. Abdulrahman O. Al-Youbi & Abdulmonem Al-Hayani & Ali Rizwan & Hani Choudhry, 2020. "Implications of COVID-19 on the Labor Market of Saudi Arabia: The Role of Universities for a Sustainable Workforce," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(17), pages 1-13, August.
    5. Aditya Goenka & Lin Liu & Manh-Hung Nguyen, 2021. "Modeling optimal quarantines with waning immunity," Discussion Papers 21-10, Department of Economics, University of Birmingham.
    6. Goenka, Aditya & Liu, Lin & Nguyen, Manh-Hung, 2020. "Modeling optimal quarantines under infectious disease related mortality," TSE Working Papers 20-1136, Toulouse School of Economics (TSE).
    7. Suphanit Piyapromdee & Peter Spittal, 2020. "The Income and Consumption Effects of COVID‐19 and the Role of Public Policy," Fiscal Studies, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 41(4), pages 805-827, December.
    8. Pilar Alvargonzález & Myroslav Pidkuyko & Ernesto Villanueva, 2020. "The financial position of the workers most affected by the pandemic: an analysis drawing on the Spanish Survey of Household Finances," Economic Bulletin, Banco de España, issue 3/2020.
    9. Egor Malkov, 2021. "Spousal Occupational Sorting and COVID-19 Incidence: Evidence from the United States," Papers 2107.14350, arXiv.org, revised Sep 2021.
    10. Caselli, Mauro & Fracasso, Andrea & Traverso, Silvio, 2021. "Robots and risk of COVID-19 workplace contagion: Evidence from Italy," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 173(C).
    11. Adams-Prassl, A. & Boneva, T. & Golin, M. & Rauh, C., 2020. "Work Tasks That Can Be Done From Home: Evidence on Variation Within and Across Occupations and Industries," Cambridge Working Papers in Economics 2040, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge.
    12. Cecilia Peluffo & Mariana Viollaz, 2021. "Intra-household exposure to labor market risk in the time of Covid-19: lessons from Mexico," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 19(2), pages 327-351, June.
    13. Sasiwimon Warunsiri Paweenawat & Lusi Liao, 2021. "A ‘She-session’? The Impact of COVID-19 on the Labour Market in Thailand," Working Papers DP-2021-11, Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia (ERIA).
    14. Satoshi Tanaka, 2022. "Economic Impacts of SARS/MERS/COVID‐19 in Asian Countries," Asian Economic Policy Review, Japan Center for Economic Research, vol. 17(1), pages 41-61, January.
    15. Takatoshi Ito & Kazumasa Iwata & Colin McKenzie & Haruko Noguchi & Shujiro Urata, 2022. "The COVID‐19 Pandemic and Asia: Editors' Overview," Asian Economic Policy Review, Japan Center for Economic Research, vol. 17(1), pages 1-17, January.
    16. Constanza Fosco & Felipe Zurita, 2021. "Assessing the short-run effects of lockdown policies on economic activity, with an application to the Santiago Metropolitan Region, Chile," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 16(6), pages 1-23, June.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Covid-19; Labor Market; Work-from-home; Physical Proximity; Occupational Sorting;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D10 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - General
    • E24 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Employment; Unemployment; Wages; Intergenerational Income Distribution; Aggregate Human Capital; Aggregate Labor Productivity
    • J12 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Marriage; Marital Dissolution; Family Structure
    • J21 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Labor Force and Employment, Size, and Structure

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