UC Davis Agricultural and Resource Economics

ARE Professor Ashish Shenoy Co-Author of New Sciences Advances Article, “Falling Living Standards During the Covid-19 Crisis: Quantitative Evidence from Nine Developing Countries”

Feb. 11, 2021

New research co-authored by ARE assistant professor Ashish Shenoy reveals the economic ramifications of Covid-19 have affected vulnerable households in less-developed countries the hardest. The study, available in the most recent issue of Science Advances, a peer-reviewed journal published by the American Association for the Advancement of Science used data collected from April-July 2020 to study the effects of Covid-19 restrictions in nine low- and middle- income countries. Using phone surveys of over 30,000 households (containing over 100,000 people) in Bangladesh, Burkina Faso, Colombia, Ghana, Kenya, Nepal, Philippines, Rwanda, and Sierra Leone, the researchers observed widespread drops in employment and income with, many households unable to meet basic nutritional needs.

“The pandemic’s economic shock in these countries, where so many people depend on casual labor to feed their families, can cause deprivations and adverse consequences in the long term, including excess mortality. Our findings underscore the importance of gathering survey data to understand the effects of the crisis and inform effective policy responses. We also demonstrate the efficacy of large-scale phone surveys to provide this crucial data,” said Shenoy.

As evidenced in the study, the Covid-19 pandemic is causing economic crises that are devastating the most marginalized populations around the world. As such, the co-authors of the study released a joint statement calling for urgent actions to mitigate crises of hunger and poverty.

 

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