4 researchers lead projects of the “Pandèmies 2020” call to study the effects of COVID-19

The Faculty of Economics and Business will receive total funding of 547,167.26 euros for four projects that the Agency for Management of University and Research Grants (AGAUR) of the Government of Catalonia has selected among the 185 proposals submitted in the call PANDÈMIES 2020.  

Thirty-two projects applied to this funding which aim is to analyse the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the concept of pandemic in general on our society, as well as to propose new measures, models and action lines that contribute to overcoming its consequences and to defining new prevention, analysis, and treatment models.

• Project “The spread of COVID-19 and its effects on the Spanish economy. A regional analysis” 

Led by Josep Lluís Carrion-i-Silvestre, researcher at the UB School of Economics and the Regional Quantitative Analysis Group of the University of Barcelona (AQR), the aim of the project is to carry out a detailed study of the evolution of the pandemic and its relationship with the characteristics of the territories, the influence of demographic, environmental and socio-economic factors on the spread of the pandemic during the first and second waves and the short and medium-term economic impact of the interventions adopted to prevent the spread of the disease. 

• Project “Living with uncertainty and economic-impact analysis” 

With Miguel Santolino as principal researcher, member of the UB School of Economics and the Research Group on Risk in Insurance and Finance (Riskcenter), the project will examine how the pandemic has increased uncertainty in the economy and in the labour market. By incorporating epidemiological uncertainty/market sentiment indicators, they will develop a broader composite index that will allow a more adequate monitoring of the cyclical and aggregate evolution of economic growth in the context of the pandemic, with the uncertainty index as the indicator that will quantify the risk on a daily basis.  

• Project “Financial and environmental sustainability of the mobility system in the large urban areas of Catalonia after COVID-19” 

Led by Daniel Albalate, researcher at the UB School of Economics and member of the Research Group on Governance and Markets (GiM), the project aims to examine how the pandemic has affected the way we move. It will try to understand the causes of the changes in the preferences and behaviour of citizens in the large urban areas of Catalonia to identify measures and actions that can influence, mitigate or reverse the effects of COVID-19 on the financial sustainability of public transport and the fight against climate change. 

• Project “Policies for Resilient Societies in Times of Pandemics” 

Judit Vall, member of the UB School of Economics and the Barcelona Institute of Economics (IEB), is leading the project which aims to provide the empirical evidence needed to inform policy makers on the best public policies and strategies to strengthen and maximise the resilience of societies -and more specifically, of the most vulnerable groups in society- to cope with the negative effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. Likewise, the project aims to help design the necessary actions to prevent these negative effects in future outbreaks of the virus. 

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