By Julian Jamison
This working paper (the corresponding author is Michèle Belot from the European University Institute) presents a new data set collected on representative samples across 6 countries: China, South Korea, Japan, Italy, the UK and the four largest states in the US. The information collected relates to work and living situations, income, behaviour (such as social-distancing, hand-washing and wearing a face mask), beliefs about the COVID-19 19 pandemic and exposure to the virus, socio-demographic characteristics and pre-pandemic health characteristics. In each country, the samples are nationally representative along three dimensions: age, gender, and household income, and in the US, it is also representative for race. The data were collected in the third week of April 2020. The data set could be used for multiple purposes, including calibrating certain parameters used in economic and epidemiological models, or for documenting the impact of the crisis on individuals, both in financial and psychological terms, and for understanding the scope for policy intervention by documenting how people have adjusted their behaviour as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and their perceptions regarding the measures implemented in their countries. The data is publicly available.
