Background: Government-imposed lockdowns during the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted essential healthcare services in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), including childbirth delivery care. While a few studies have documented a decline in institutional deliveries, little is known about the...

The COVID-19 pandemic significantly impacted the global economy, with variable effects on economic growth, employment, and inflation rates in different countries and regions. Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) region experienced the most severe consequences for economic growth and employment,...

Calvert et al. (2023) meta-analyzed effect estimates from interrupted time series (ITS) analyses of changes in preterm birth- and stillbirth rates following the first four months lockdown in various countries. Evidence for small relative reductions was reported regarding preterm birth rates in...

The study examines changes in household food security and identifies their key determinants in Zambia by comparing the pre-pandemic period to the COVID-19 pandemic period. Using nationally representative surveys from 2015 and 2021 and the coarsened exact matching (CEM) approach, 8650 households...

Ravindran and Shah (2023) assesses the effect of COVID-19 lockdowns on violence against women (VAM) in India. Using a dynamic fixed effects methodology exploiting spatio-temporal variation in the timing and intensity of 'stay-at-home' mandates in Indian districts, the authors find that...

Social connection is a key determinant of emotional well-being, yet the role of solitude in shaping both momentary affect and overall life satisfaction remains understudied. This paper investigates how being alone while engaging in daily activities relates to subjective well-being, using rich...

In developing economies, rural households send their members to urban areas to cope with idiosyncratic shocks by sharing resources through internal remittances, which are more prevalent than international remittances. However, there is limited evidence on the role of internal remittances in...

This paper documents a robust link between COVID-19 lockdowns and the uptake and persistence of working from home (WFH) practices. Exploiting rich longitudinal data, we use a difference-in-differences strategy to compare office workers in three heavily locked-down Australian states to similar...

This paper investigates the localized and short-term effects of COVID-19-induced lockdowns on Shanghai's rental market in the second half of 2022. Using Difference-in-Differences methodologies, we find that rental prices declined by 1.5% following the lockdowns on average, with areas...

The COVID-19 pandemic and the implementation of strict lockdown measures have significantly impacted various dimensions of the global economy. This study examines the impact of COVID-19 and lockdown stringency on exchange rate volatility in India using three core variables, i.e., COVID-19 cases,...

We revisit the issue of Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) during the COVID-19 pandemic asking three questions: whether IPV increased with lockdown, what pandemic-specific 'shocks' or 'stressors' had the greatest impact and how the results change when different measures of IPV are used. Leveraging...

In this chapter, we aim to improve the understanding of the well-being impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. We provide an overview of the existing literature and carry out empirical analysis aimed at addressing certain gaps in the knowledge. Specifically, we examine the evolution of parental...

We study children's access to remote learning when schools were closed during the COVID-19 pandemic and their parents' perceptions about learning progress in seven Southeast Asian countries. This is the first regional analysis to systematically document students' access to remote learning based...

This study measures congestion in major container ports and investigates how port characteristics and regional factors influence congestion during the COVID-19 periods. We develop port congestion indicators, including vessel arrivals, vessels staying in a period, waiting time, and service time....

COVID-19 has proven to be a unique and complex shock for firms. In this paper we analyze the performance of individual Chilean firms during this episode drawing on administrative datasets. In particular we empirically characterize the international trade adjustment at the firm and product level....

We use two surveys to assess why work from home (WFH) varies so much across countries and people. A measure of cultural individualism accounts for about one-third of the cross-country variation in WFH rates. Australia, Canada, the UK, and the US score highly on individualism and WFH rates,...