Working Paper: CEPR ID: DP17448
Authors: Anders Åkerman; Karolina Ekholm; Torsten Persson; Oskar Nordström Skans
Abstract: Using highly granular micro data, we document very divergent economic effects of theCOVID-19 pandemic on Swedish private-sector firms and their workers. Firms that exportedto, or imported from, heavily afflicted countries reduced their output due to disruptedtrade. Service firms that operated in locations with many infections reduced their outputdue to falling local consumption, despite very limited regional restrictions. Workers at thebottom of each social gradient – defined by education, earnings or ethnicity – took atwofold hit: their employers faced the largest output drops and they experienced the largesttransmissions from firm output to earnings.
Keywords: COVID-19; virus transmission; inequality
JEL Codes: No JEL codes provided
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| Foreign COVID-19 deaths (Y10) | Firm output (D21) |
| Local COVID-19 deaths (H70) | Service firm output (L84) |
| Firm output (D21) | Worker earnings (J31) |
| Firm output losses (D21) | Lower socioeconomic group earnings (J31) |