Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/223047 
Year of Publication: 
2020
Series/Report no.: 
GLO Discussion Paper No. 637
Publisher: 
Global Labor Organization (GLO), Essen
Abstract: 
This paper examines whether the intensity of Non-Pharmaceutical Interventions (NPIs) during the COVID-19 pandemic has differentially impacted the public sector labor market outcomes. This extends the analysis of the already documented negative economic consequences from COVID-19 and their dissimilarities with a typical economic crisis. To capture the intensity of the NPIs, we build a novel index (COVINDEX) using daily information on NPIs merged with state level data on out of home mobility (Google data) to show that among individuals living in a typical state, the NPIs enforcement during the COVID-19 reduces the likelihood of being employed (at work) by 5% with respect to the pre-COVID period and the hours worked by 1.3% using data on labor market outcomes from the monthly Current Population Survey and difference-in-difference models. This is a sizable amount representing the sector with the higher job security during the pandemic. Public sector workers in a typical state are 4 percentage points more likely to be at work than salaried workers in the private sector and 7 percentage points more likely than self-employed workers (the worst so far). Our results are robust to endogeneity of the NPIs measures and present empirical evidence of heterogeneity in the response to the NPIs with those in the local employment being the hardest hit.
Subjects: 
COVID-19
coronavirus
public sector
remote work
essential worker
employment
hours worked
JEL: 
D1
J15
J16
J2
J23
J45
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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