Gimme shelter: Social distancing and income support in times of pandemic

Ulugbek Aminjonov, Olivier Bargain and Tanguy Bernard

No 2042, IFPRI discussion papers from International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI)

Abstract: Strict containment limits the spread of pandemics but is difficult to achieve when people must continue to work to avoid poverty. A new role is emerging for income support: by enabling people to effectively stay home, it can produce substantial health externalities. We examine this issue using data on human mobility and poverty rates in 729 subnational regions of low- and middle-income countries during the first year of COVID-19. Shelter-in-place orders decrease work-related mobility in general, but much less so in the poorest regions. Emergency income support significantly mitigates this mobility gap between regions. It reduces by half the additional contagion caused, via the mobility channel, by regional poverty differences.

Keywords: income; policies; covid-19; social protection; physical distancing; quarantine; poverty; pandemics (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hea
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://hdl.handle.net/10568/143475

Related works:
Journal Article: Gimme shelter. Social distancing and income support in times of pandemic (2023)
Working Paper: Gimme shelter. Social distancing and income support in times of pandemic (2023)
Working Paper: Gimme Shelter. Social distancing and Income Support in times of Pandemic (2021)
Working Paper: Gimme Shelter. Social Distancing and Income Support in Times of Pandemic (2021)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:fpr:ifprid:2042

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in IFPRI discussion papers from International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ().