Simón Sánchez-Moral (p), Alfonso Arellano, Ricardo Méndez

Alexandre Taminato

Teleworking has been one of the main strategies rolled out by companies and institutions in response to lockdowns and the public health crisis created by successive waves of COVID. Two years after the initial outbreak, we are beginning to gather empirical evidence that enables us to quantify and characterize the phenomenon of teleworking, most notably in relation to its spatial consequences.
Here, we analyze two sets of microdata that have remained largely unexplored to date. One of these sets was obtained from a survey conducted at provincial level by the Spanish Statistical Office (INE) in 2021, and the other from a survey conducted at city level by Madrid city council in the second quarter of 2020. Based on this information, we aim to contribute to debates about the more advantageous position of urban territories as regards teleworking, thanks to specialization in particular economic activities and the higher number of qualified professionals, and to study socio-demographic differences among workers (i.e. age, gender, educational level, income) in relation to how these may affect this phenomenon and generate a new digital divide. The results for Madrid confirm these general trends and indicate that the spatiality of teleworking is shaped by the socio-demographic characteristics of a neighbourhood and the unequal nature of the activities carried out by workers during the pandemic. Furthermore, the teleworking strategy has had a greater impact not only in the central city of Madrid but also in more peripheral but well-connected towns in the metropolitan region.

Miriam Marcen (p), Rafael González-Val

Simón Sánchez-Moral

This paper studies the impact on reported coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) cases and deaths in Spain resulting from large mass gatherings that occurred from March 6 to March 8, 2020. To study these outcomes, the geographic differences in the planned pre-pandemic major events that took place on these dates were exploited, which is a quasi-random source of variation for identification purposes. We collected daily and detailed information about the number of attendees at football (soccer) and basketball matches in addition to individuals participating in the Women’s Day Marches across Spain, which we merged with daily data on reported COVID-19 cases and deaths at the provincial level. Our results reveal evidence of non-negligible COVID-19-reported cases related to the differences in the percentage of attendees at these major events from March 6 to March 8. In a typical province, approximately 31% of the average daily reported COVID-19 cases per 100,000 inhabitants between mid-March and early April 2020 can be explained by the participation rate in those major events. A back-of-the-envelope calculation suggests that this implies almost 5 million euros (169,000 euros/day) of additional economic cost in the health system of a typical province with 1 million inhabitants in the period under consideration. Several mechanisms behind the spread of COVID-19 are also examined. Results are robust to endogeneity checks.

Enrique Lopez-Bazo (p)

Miriam Marcen

This study analyzes the effect that the socioeconomic deprivation of the population has had on the incidence of the Covid-19 pandemic in small geographic areas. To do so, it uses daily information about the cases reported in the basic health areas (ABS) of Catalonia from the first to the sixth waves of the pandemic and combines them with an indicator of the degree of socioeconomic deprivation of the population of each ABS. The analysis controls for a set of local factors and characteristics that may also have affected the incidence of Covid-19 and in turn correlate with the degree of socioeconomic deprivation. Likewise, the general results for the case of Catalonia as a whole are complemented by a specific analysis of the ABS of the city of Barcelona, given that in this case the heterogeneity due to some confounding factors, such as density, weather, and atmospheric pollution, is much smaller.
The results confirm that the incidence and rate of spread of the pandemic was higher in geographic areas with populations with a higher degree of socioeconomic deprivation. In addition, they suggest that the strict confinement implemented during the first wave contributed to slowing down the impact of Covid-19 more intensely in the areas with the highest degree of deprivation. On the other hand, the preliminary results suggest that the impact of the socioeconomic conditions would have been decreasing in the successive waves.
The results allow us to draw lessons that may be relevant for other economies with still low levels of vaccination, in the face of possible variants of the Covid-19 virus and, especially, in the case of the initial phases of future pandemics caused by respiratory viruses.

Alexandre Taminato (p), Antonio Carlos Coelho Campino

Enrique Lopez-Bazo

Introduction: By May 2021, the number of deaths caused by the COVID-19 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic exceeded 40,000 in the city of São Paulo, Brazil. This analysis aims to estimate the economic and social impact by calculation of YLL and the productivity losses.

Methodology: COVID19 mortality data from 1st of March 2020 to 27th May 2021 by gender, age, district of residence was extracted from information system of mortality of São Paulo city. Average income (not only salaries but other forms of income e.g. rents, interest) in each of the 97 districts of the municipality of São Paulo was obtained from the 2010 Demographic Census and adjusted to present value. COVID-19 absolute mortality rate, estimation of years of life lost prematurely (YLL) were calculated based on age at which the person died and the life expectancy at the age of death. Productivity losses were calculated based on YLL and average income of each individual from 18 years to retirement age.

Results: A total of 41,604 deaths by COVID-19 were confirmed, 45.20% women and 54.75% men, which represents 746,992 years of life lost YLL (17.95 YLL per person). 44.38% of the total YLLs are related to the age group between 55 and 74 years old. The estimated loss of productivity is € 647.349.432,53, €202.974.601,99 for women and € 444.374.830,54 for men, an average of € 48.374,64 per deceased person (rate on 27May21 R$1,000 = €6,444).
For the purpose of this analysis, income data was considered as proxy for quality of life, i.e. lower income areas are related to lower socio-economic conditions.

The simple linear regression performed was:
Total Deaths = 587.8702 -0.07080 Income + , R2 = 0.193689 , Adjusted R2= 0.18520
(14.5587) (-4.7709)
N = 97
Numbers in parenthesis are the t statistics

The regression for Total Deaths indicates that If income increases 10, deaths will be reduced in 0.7080.
Conclusion: It was estimated 746.992 YLL and € 647M in future productivity losses due to the deaths caused by COVID-19. This impact can be higher since when a person dies, all abilities acquired by education or training during life and eventually the productive potential are also lost.
Linear regression result suggests that areas with lower income may be more affected by pandemics. As next step, compare data from slams areas with higher income districts may be done.