Publication: How Did Countries Respond to the COVID-19 Crisis? Emerging Patterns on Jobs-Relates Policies
Date
2023-04-24
ISSN
Published
2023-04-24
Author(s)
Contreras , Ivette
Khamis, Melanie
Newhouse, David
Weber, Michael
Abstract
This brief investigates the differences
in countries’ jobs-related policy responses to the COVID-19
pandemic. Four main patterns emerge. First, the type of labor
policies adopted by countries varied greatly according to
their income level. Low-income countries were more likely to
implement public works programs but not other policies, such
as unemployment benefits, labor regulations, wage subsidies,
training and placements policies, firm liquidity support, and
cash transfers to workers. Meanwhile, countries with more
formal workforce and existing unemployment benefits systems
were more likely to implement policies such as unemployment
benefits and labor regulations. Second, low- and
lower-middle-income countries devoted a lower share of their
gross domestic product (GDP) to expenditure on new
job-related policies. Third, conditional on countries’
income group, the magnitude of the GDP shock did not have a
statistically significant correlation with the adoption of
different policies. This may reflect uncertainty in the
the extent of the GDP shock when the policy response was
determined or noise in the measure of GDP. Finally, countries
that adopted more stringent COVID-19 restrictions were more
likely to adopt changes to labor regulations, specifically
changes in working conditions to try to soften the blow on
workers. These results suggest that the policy response to
the crisis in low- and lower-middle-income countries was
constrained by the lack of resources, resulting in
lower-cost policies with generally limited impacts on workers.
Link to Data Set
Citation
“Contreras , Ivette; Khamis, Melanie; Newhouse, David; Weber, Michael. 2023. How Did Countries Respond to the COVID-19 Crisis? Emerging Patterns on Jobs-Relates Policies. Jobs Watch COVID-19. © World Bank, Washington DC. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/39730 License: CC BY-NC 3.0 IGO.”