How Did Urban Household Enterprises in Sub-Saharan Africa Fare during COVID-19 ?Evidence from High-Frequency Phone Surveys

While the impact of COVID-19 on Sub-Saharan African labor markets is well documented, thereis suggestive evidence that urban households may have fared particularly poorly. This paper uses data fromhigh-frequency phone surveys in 27 Sub-Saharan African countries to investigate which kinds of urban householdenterprises were most affected, what coping strategies were utilized, and heterogeneity by sociodemographiccharacteristics in the short and medium run. Using linear probability models, the paper finds that households thatrelied on income from non-farm enterprises were hit particularly hard during the early stage of the crisis, with20-26 percent reporting income declines, and women experiencing even greater losses. Few coping strategies wereutilized in the short run to counterbalance the loss of enterprise income. As the crisis progressed, wage employmentrecovered more quickly than self-employment, with faster gains for non-farm household enterprises, less poorhouseholds, and those headed by males and adults. Women, adults, and non-poor self-employed household heads were moresuccessful at leveraging external sources of support early in the pandemic, but these supports largely dropped off byAugust 2020. These results demonstrate the vulnerability of non-farm household enterprises in urban Sub-Saharan Africato the COVID-19 shock and highlight the need to expand publicly and privately financed coping mechanisms,particularly for women, youth, and poor household heads who are self-employed.