Working After Covid-19: Cross-Country Evidence from Real-Time Survey Data

This paper uses real time survey data from two waves launched at the end of March and in mid-April to provide a snapshot of the labor market outcomes in twelve countries, after that many restraining measures had been implemented. The main aim is to analyze the short-term effects on the labor market of the different social distancing measures adopted in these countries. Survey data from the project REPEAT (REpresentations, PErceptions and ATtitudes on the COVID-19) allows a comparison of these labor market responses, which may differ across countries, since countries were at different stages of the diffusion of the coronavirus and thus featured different public health measures at the time of the survey. In most countries, the first wave of the survey was launched from few days (Austria, UK) to three weeks (Italy) after the (regional, in the case of the US) lockdown – with the exception of Germany, where the lockdown was implemented immediately after.