COVID-19 may accelerate the automation of jobs as employers invest in technology to safeguard against pandemics. We identify occupations that have high automation potential and also exhibit a high risk of viral infection. We examine regional variation in terms of which U.S. local labor markets...

There have been stark differences in the ability of low-income and high-income individuals to protect themselves during the COVID-19 pandemic. Using a triple difference specification, we document that debt burdens contribute to this inequity by disproportionately increasing the cost to...

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused Governments to contemplate measures to override patents and other intellectual property rights (IPRs) in order to facilitate production and distribution of vaccines, treatments, diagnostics and medical devices. This paper discusses whether the COVID-19 pandemic...

Across the world, the COVID-19 pandemic has been most devastating to already-vulnerable populations. At the same time, it has brought our interconnectedness into sharp focus. Policies chosen in one jurisdiction affect conditions in others, and even regions isolated from each other are linked...

This Article coins and explains the phenomena of IP nationalism. Just as some nations engage in vaccine nationalism by hoarding limited COVID vaccines, so, too, some nations are hoarding critical knowledge and technology by resisting modification of usual IP rules during the pandemic, such as a...

How has government healthcare spending prepared countries for tackling the COVID19 pandemic? Arguably, spending is the primary policy tool of governments in providing effective health. We argue that the effectiveness of spending in reducing COVID deaths is conditional on the existence of...

This study carries out a cross-country analysis of changes in quantity and quality of life during the first six months of the COVID-19 pandemic (11 March to 11 September 2020) for 124 countries. Changes in quantity of life are measured as life years lost to COVID-19, including excess deaths not...

Epidemics invite “pariah-tization.” By this, I mean the process of stigmatizing one marginalized and impotent segment of society as being the group most vulnerable to the disease at hand- without reliable scientific basis. Doing so allows those in power, the young, the rich, the...

The SARS-CoV-2 novel coronavirus is an external shock to all societies with lasting impacts that have changed individual, political, and corporate decisions profoundly. Increasing evidence reveals that an estimated 10-50% of those previously infected with COVID-19 face a longer-term or long-term...

Background: This research explores the repercussions of the COVID-19 emergency on women’s enablement worldwide, scrutinizing data spanning 93 nations between 2019 and 2020.Methods: The investigation employs sectional data examination of various metrics pertinent to women’s empowerment,...