When face-to-face interactions become an occupational hazard: Jobs in the time of COVID-19

By Besart Avdiu, Gaurav Nayyar. Economics Letters, 2020

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There is a crisis of demand brewing around the globe as social distancing becomes the norm to counter the COVID-19 outbreak. So, which parts of the economy are most in the line of fire? Looking at jobs that can be done at home or that require a high degree of face-to-face interactions with consumers can capture complementary but distinct mechanisms to assess this vulnerability. This paper uses data on 900 job titles from the Occupational Information Network (O*NET) database for the United States to demonstrate that there is substantial heterogeneity in vulnerability across industries, income groups, and gender. First, industries vary in whether they emphasize face-to-face interactions and home-based work and the two do not always go hand-in-hand. Second, occupations that are less amenable to home-based work are largely concentrated among the lower wage deciles. Third, a larger share of women's employment is accounted for by occupations that are intensive in face-to-face interactions.

Subfields: Economics and Econometrics

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/acfb823a3eede53b108b106c4ddc4f1e2e0587a3

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