Footnote:
Nach Informationen von SSRN wurde die ursprüngliche Fassung des Dokuments August 4, 2020 erstellt
Description:
Using data from a large online education platform with more than 100,000 gig workers, we investigate the causal impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on gig economy labor supply and quantify how much of the impact can be attributed to lockdown policies. The average labor supply on the gig economy platform increases by 25% during the pandemic. The impact is nationwide and is stronger in states with more confirmed cases of COVID-19. The impact of state-level shelter-in-place or stay-at-home orders accounts for only 7%~16% of the overall impact of the pandemic, suggesting that simply lifting the lockdown policies without controlling the disease well is unlikely to get the economy back on track. We also evaluate how female and male workers respond differently. Although both female and male workers increase their labor supply, female workers' increase in labor supply is smaller than male workers', and consequently, the already existing gender gap in labor supply increases by 31%. The increase in gender gap is primarily driven by workers in their age of 30-50, implying that the increase in gender gap is likely to be caused by the school closures during the pandemic and the disproportionate allocation of housework and childcare responsibility across gender