Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/223739 
Year of Publication: 
2020
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 13297
Publisher: 
Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
In March 2020, shelter-in-place and social-distancing policies have been enforced or recommended all over the world to fight the COVID-19 pandemic. However, strict containment is hardly achievable in low-income countries, as large parts of population are forced to continue income-generating activities to escape extreme poverty or hunger. To assess the trade-off between poverty and a higher risk of catching COVID-19, we use regional mobility to work and poverty rates across 241 regions of 9 countries from Latin America and Africa. With a difference-in-difference approach around the time of lockdown announcements, we measure the differential time variation in work mobility between high and low-poverty regions. We find that the degree of work mobility reduction is significantly driven by the intensity of poverty. Consistently, human movements vary significantly more between poverty levels when it come to work rather than less vital activities. We also estimate how higher poverty rates translate into a faster spread of COVID-19 cases through the channel of work mobility.
Subjects: 
COVID-19
poverty
lockdown
compliance
work mobility
JEL: 
E71
H12
I12
I18
O15
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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