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...

This paper analyses changes in the speed of labour demand for new hires in response to the lockdowns that were repeatedly put in place to contain the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. It tests whether the uncertainty-reducing effect of similar lockdowns occurring in quick succession increased the...

This comprehensive study delves into the nuanced relationship between public health initiatives, particularly non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs), and their economic repercussions amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Employing a dataset spanning from February 2020 to June 2021, this study conducts a...

This paper reviews the history of the practice of quarantines, rediscovering the 19th century 'Sanitarian' movement in Britain that sprang from a recognition that quarantines had failed to stop the spread of diseases and were not cost-effective. To our knowledge, the key figure among the...

The COVID-19 pandemic caused severe losses in the world economy, particularly in emerging market economies (EMEs), which had to withstand the challenges of the pandemic and its domestic repercussions while also facing the deterioration of external demand. Using a panel data model, we estimate...

We assess whether the COVID-19 vaccine induces COVID-19 risky behavior (e.g., going to bars and restaurants) and thus reduces vaccine efficacy. A key empirical challenge is the endogeneity bias when comparing risk-taking by vaccination status since people choose whether to get vaccinated. To...

This paper analyses changes in the speed of labour demand for new hires in response to the lockdowns that were repeatedly put in place to contain the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. It tests whether the uncertainty-reducing effect of similar lockdowns occurring in quick succession increased the...

Two extraordinary U.S. labor market developments facilitated the sharp disinflation in 2022-23 without raising the unemployment rate. First, pandemic-driven infection worries and social distancing intentions caused a sizable drag on labor force participation that began to reverse in the first...

This paper estimates the effects of having children at home on the labor market outcomes of women in Mexico during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. Our findings suggest that women with children at home experienced some additional negative impacts on their labor supply immediately after...

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,...

Can societies be nudged to adopt beneficial behaviors? Publicizing how people behave on average-descriptive-norms nudging-has emerged as a key tool for increasing the adoption of desirable behaviors. While nudging, by describing social norms, has proven effective in one-shot interventions in...

Vaccine boosters have been recommended to mitigate the spread of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. A mathematical model with three vaccine doses and susceptibility is formulated. The model is calibrated using the cumulative number of hospitalized cases from Alberta, Canada....

Critics protest loudly against restrictions imposed by politicians during the COVID-19 pandemic in Germany: Mandatory masks, lockdowns, school and business closures. This paper examines (1) the extent to which these policies have indirectly contributed to limiting the number of COVID-19 cases...

The purpose of this report is to analyze the impact that the COVID-19 pandemic has had on the vaccine industry from an international perspective. The objective is to learn from the experience and contribute to the design of better tools for future vaccine development and manufacturing, as we...

We use quarterly panel data from the COME-HERE survey covering five European countries to analyse three facets of the experience of loneliness during the COVID-19 pandemic. First, in terms of prevalence, loneliness peaked in April 2020, followed by a U-shape pattern in the rest of 2020, and then...

The effect of face masks on Covid-19 transmission is crucial for the health of populations. The effectiveness of face masks in reducing the transmission of Covid-19 varies across primary evidence. To perform a quantitative meta-analysis, we collected 258 estimates from 44 primary studies...

Purpose This study addresses the COVID-19 infection and its relationship with the city's constructive intensity, commuting time to work and labor market dynamics during the lockdown period. Design/methodology/approach Microdata from formal workers in Recife was used to adjust a probability model...

This article analyses the work-related factors that impact the occurrence of presenteeism in Croatia during the COVID-19 pandemic. The main objective is to examine the connection between key variables and the prevalence of presenteeism among employees in Croatia. The study used logistic...