Blog

This blog post features five figures from recent Hamilton Project essays and analyses that illustrate the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the need for continued policy response.

As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, millions of essential workers are confronting new public health hazards in their workplace. Yet because of mass de-unionization over the past 40 years, most of these workers lack union representation. In this blog, Jimmy O'Donnell builds upon prior Hamilton Project work, shows how workplace conditions have changed for workers, and discusses the potential role for private-sector labor unions.

Jevay Grooms, Alberto Ortega, and Joaquín Rubalcaba present new survey data revealing disparities in outcomes related to the COVID-19 pandemic across race/ethnicity and employment status. Their findings underscore the need to strengthen federal assistance targeted to Black and Hispanic households.

In this blog post, researchers show that there is room for Congress to improve the triggers under current law that turn on and maintain the Unemployment Insurance Extended Benefits program to support the long-term unemployed when the labor market is weak. They also show that there is room for states to take full advantage of provisions under current law by opting into more generous benefit extensions.

In this piece, Lauren Bauer presents new evidence that almost 18 percent of children in the US did not have sufficient food as recently as the third week in June during the COVID-19 pandemic, meriting a substantial and immediate public investment.

Since the March Employment Situation, the number of respondents reporting as "employed but absent from work due to other reasons" has risen as a share of the labor force. In this blog, Lauren Bauer, Wendy Edelberg, Jimmy O'Donnell, and Jay Shambaugh explore the nature and magnitude of this phenomenon and analyze who these "potentially misclassified" respondents are.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, broad-based income support through both direct checks and unemployment insurance have been essential in limiting the income losses. However in this blog post, Jana Parsons shows that more can be done to provide relief for families in need, with TANF as a key and underutilized part of the solution.

In this analysis, Ryan Nunn, Jimmy O'Donnell, and Jay Shambaugh consider several policy options that could help boost workers’ wages. The authors also provide a categorization of which workers qualify as essential—performing functions society urgently needs that must be done in person—and then detail their incomes and their demographic characteristics.

The rapid contraction of the economy this spring has shattered records for the speed of onset of a recession. One of the most economically important pieces of the nearly $3 trillion policy response has been the rapid expansion of unemployment insurance (UI). Our preliminary calculations suggest that UI offset a small portion of personal income loss in March 2020, but roughly half of lost wages and salaries in April.

This blog post explores two important labor market disadvantages observed for nontraditional workers: more volatile hours and less health insurance coverage.

In this blog post, Lauren Bauer documents new evidence from two nationally representative surveys that were initiated to provide up-to-date estimates of the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic, including the incidence of food insecurity.

This blog post and video explain how existing emissions policies could be updated once a sufficiently high carbon price is in place. They also underscore the importance of suspending—not repealing—regulations, in the event that a carbon price is later rolled back.

In this blog post, Hamilton Project Director Jay Shambaugh argues for the use of economic data-based triggers to ensure appropriate fiscal support that aligns with economic conditions. These triggers will allow for quick policy activation, faster implementation facilitated by pre-planning, and sustained policy support that lasts as long as needed.

The U.S. unemployment insurance (UI) system replaces some of the earnings of workers who have lost their jobs, helping them to stay afloat during tough economic times. But the UI system can also support workers and employers as they reduce, rather than eliminate, employees’ work hours.

If the COVID-19 pandemic can be controlled, good policy may be able to steer to a quick return from the economic shock. Policymakers have already stepped up, but they will need to do more to prevent this recession from causing even more damage.

Hamilton Project researchers Ryan Nunn and Jana Parsons show that unemployment duration is substantially shorter for workers who are temporarily laid off and provides hope that employment relationships can be maintained after a temporary shutdown of the economy.

Jay Shambaugh offers answers to frequently asked questions about the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the U.S. economy and the implementation of various fiscal and monetary policy tools used in response to the crisis.

In this blog post, Jay Shambaugh presents policy suggestions that argue for funding testing, creating and funding sick leave for many workers, and providing funds to states via Medicaid funds.

Ryan Nunn argues that in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, the UI system requires a number of reforms to support families and the broader economy. 

Lauren Bauer and Diane Whitmore Schanzenbach detail policy responses tailored to the COVID-19 pandemic to support food security, particularly for households with children.

Hamilton Project Director Jay Shambaugh comments on the COVID-19 virus and how economic policies with automatic triggers can alleviate the financial burden of the epidemic.

A close examination of wealth in the U.S. finds evidence of staggering racial disparities.

Leveraging monthly labor market data, Emily Moss, Ryan Nunn, and Jay Shambaugh analyze three components of income—wages, hours worked, and employment—to estimate household income growth.

In this analysis, we examine how prime-age working (ages 25–54) men and women allocate their time, overall and by parental status. This analysis shows that for some, especially mothers, caregiving and other household obligations reduce the amount of time that can be spent looking for work and working.