TY - JOUR
T1 - Panel data evidence on the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on livelihoods in urban Côte d’Ivoire
AU - Dupas, Pascaline
AU - Fafchamps, Marcel
AU - Lestant, Eva
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
Copyright: © 2023 Dupas et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
PY - 2023/2
Y1 - 2023/2
N2 - In early March 2020, a few cases of COVID-19 were diagnosed in Abidjan, the capital city of Côte d’Ivoire. To combat the spread of the disease, large restrictions to mobility and gatherings were introduced between mid-March and late May 2020. We collected panel survey data on over 2,500 individuals from poorer neighborhoods of the Greater Abidjan area over the period immediately before and after the start of the pandemic. We document striking drops in employment, hours worked, income, and food consumption in the first months after the onset of COVID-19, when lockdown was in place. We also find that, in response, survey respondents received more private transfers from other parts of the country, at a time when remittances from abroad fell—and that some respondents moved either temporarily or permanently. In terms of recovery, we find that subjective well-being was lower on average in December 2020 than it was at baseline. Yet, despite schools being closed between mid-March and July 2020, school enrollment suffered little: by December 2020, enrollment rates had bounced back to their baseline level. Our results finally indicate that government policies aimed at alleviating the worst effects of lockdown only reached a few people, and not necessarily those most in need.
AB - In early March 2020, a few cases of COVID-19 were diagnosed in Abidjan, the capital city of Côte d’Ivoire. To combat the spread of the disease, large restrictions to mobility and gatherings were introduced between mid-March and late May 2020. We collected panel survey data on over 2,500 individuals from poorer neighborhoods of the Greater Abidjan area over the period immediately before and after the start of the pandemic. We document striking drops in employment, hours worked, income, and food consumption in the first months after the onset of COVID-19, when lockdown was in place. We also find that, in response, survey respondents received more private transfers from other parts of the country, at a time when remittances from abroad fell—and that some respondents moved either temporarily or permanently. In terms of recovery, we find that subjective well-being was lower on average in December 2020 than it was at baseline. Yet, despite schools being closed between mid-March and July 2020, school enrollment suffered little: by December 2020, enrollment rates had bounced back to their baseline level. Our results finally indicate that government policies aimed at alleviating the worst effects of lockdown only reached a few people, and not necessarily those most in need.
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U2 - 10.1371/journal.pone.0277559
DO - 10.1371/journal.pone.0277559
M3 - Article
C2 - 36724194
AN - SCOPUS:85147317961
SN - 1932-6203
VL - 18
JO - PloS one
JF - PloS one
IS - 2 February
M1 - e0277559
ER -