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Unemployment in the period of COVID-19: June 2022
Grossmann, Jakub ; Münich, Daniel
The effects of the covid-19 crisis on registered unemployment are hardly observed anymore. Adjusted for seasonal effects, the registered unemployment rate fell again in June '22. The Czech Republic remains the country with the lowest unemployment rate in the whole EU. Differences in the impact on women and men, occupations, education and age groups are still present but small. A potential threat to the overheated Czech labour market is the projected autumn slowdown in European economies.
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Nezaměstnanost v období COVID-19: březen 2022
Grossmann, Jakub ; Münich, Daniel
Dopady krize covid-19 na registrovanou nezaměstnanost již téměř odezněly. Odhlédnuto od sezónních efektů, obecná míra nezaměstnanosti v březnu ’22 poklesla. Česko zůstává zemí s nejnižší mírou nezaměstnanosti v celé EU. Rozdíly v dopadech na ženy a muže, profese, vzdělanostní a věkové skupiny jsou stále přítomné, ale malé.
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Social contacts in the times of covid-19
Pertold, Filip ; Lichard, T.
The rate of spread of the epidemic is largely influenced by the number of contacts. Using the data “Life during the pandemic”, we analyze the development of the number of contacts during 2020. The number of contacts reported in the sociological survey is strongly correlated with both the R number (reproduction number) and the objective measurement of activity in the Google mobility report. The basic goal of this analysis is to show how the number of contacts is linked to the reported activities, which are directly or indirectly affected by government measures.
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Monthly unemployment reports during COVID-19
Grossmann, Jakub ; Münich, Daniel
These reports concisely summarize, describe, and comment on the evolution of unemployment in the Czech Republic during the covid-19 pandemics. The monthly reports are mainly based on the data from Czech unemployment offices and they are usually produced within one day after the data release.
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The different economic effects of the Covid-19 crisis on women and men in the Czech Republic
Menzel, Andreas ; Miotto, Martina
Women are very likely economically and socially affected harder by the Covid-19 crisis for at least three reasons. They are disproportionally employed in sectors affected harder by Covid-19 related lock-downs (tourism, hospitality, retail, services). They are likely to shoulder more of the additional child-care needs due to the closing of schools and child-care facilities. They are more likely to be victims of domestic violence, with many indicators pointing towards an increase in domestic violence due to the lock-down.
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Using Bluetooth technology for COVID-19 contact tracing
Jann, Ole ; Kocourek, Pavel ; Steiner, Jakub
The coronavirus is transmitted indiscriminately through proximity, which makes tracing infections difficult. Bluetooth tracing apps can reliably record transmission possibilities even when the participants do not know each other and do not remember the interaction. This can be done with a high degree of privacy. A well-designed app provides a similar level of privacy to not using an app at all. Decentralized data storage means that the privacy and security of the system is highly resilient against exploitation by any powerful actor (such as a government). A disadvantage of protecting privacy through decentralization is that tracing apps need to be taken up by the population one person at a time. Their use cannot be checked remotely and hence cannot be effectively mandated by governments or health authorities. A very high degree of take-up is necessary to make them an effective weapon against the virus. The eRouška app by COVID19cz follows these principles and offers a very high degree of privacy protection. Specifically, it does not collect any data except the phone numbers of non-infected users, and only collects anonymized meeting data (and no location or other metadata) of infected users – this data is only available to a hygienist after voluntary data transmission by the user. No data is transmitted to the server without explicit user agreement.
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Short-time work and related measures to mitigate the consequences of a (partial) economic shutdown
Mittag, Nikolas ; Pertold, Filip
The objective of this document is to provide a basic foundation to think about the merits, alternatives and policy design choices of short-time work policies. The first section characterizes the motivation for short-term work and the types of costs that it can help to reduce or cause. The second section briefly overviews key policy alternatives and their merits, to lay out where short-time work has the potential to be useful, and what alternative tools can amend or replace it. This is followed by an overview of short-time work policies from the last recession and key lessons learned from that experience. The document closes with an overview of short-time work policies already enacted in response to the current economic situation. The main aim of this document is to draw general policy conclusions for the current situation in the Czech Republic based on the reviews and considerations in the first two sections. Section 3 will attempt to do so. Readers who are primarily interested in specific policies or those familiar with the literature on short-time work may want to go straight to Section 3.
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Helping companies to maintain employment: fast, simple, economically meaningful (short recommendation)
Münich, Daniel
This recommendation describes the basic characteristics of deferring the due date for payment of employers’ social security and health insurance contributions from their employees’ salaries, as one of a range of necessary measures that the Czech government should bring into force as quickly as possible in order to reduce the negative economic impact of the ongoing COVID-19 epidemic on companies, employees and residents and to shorten\nthe domestic economy’s future period of consolidation. The measure is in line with the recommendations in the study IDEA anti COVID-19 #2 study, which emphasises the significance of bringing in measures quickly and targeting them at the survival of wellestablished economic structures during the most difficult period.
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How should the government’s crisis measures be communicated? Through frequent repetition
Korbel, Václav ; Novák, Vladimír ; Šoltés, Michal ; Tóth, L.
About three weeks after the first case of Covid-19 infection in the Czech Republic was confirmed, i.e. on 20th - 21st March, we carried out a survey to find out how the way government measures are communicated affects residents’ willingness to abide by them. Our main findings were published in IDEA anti COVID-19 study # 7. We supplemented our questionnaire with an experiment in which we provided five different pieces of information\nabout the government measures to five randomly selected groups of people. This study focuses on presenting the results of that experiment.
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An overview of foreign testing practices from an economic and statistical perspective
Steiner, Jakub ; Kulveit, J. ; Matysková, L. ; Jann, Ole ; Kocourek, Pavel ; Novák, Vladimír
Our testing algorithm for Covid-19 infection and how we adapt it in response to the epidemic's progress, contact tracing technology, and knowledge of the virus, will be crucial in our fight against the epidemic. That algorithm must be developed with input from epidemiologists, biochemists and others. As economists, we believe we also play a relevant role, since testing for Covid-19 infections is a classic case of the problem of allocating rare goods – tests. We have compiled the following annotated overview of testing practices abroad as a starting point for an interdisciplinary discussion, fully aware of our lack of sufficient knowledge in epidemiology, biochemistry and medicine.
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