COVID-19 disparities by gender and income: Evidence from the Philippines

The COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting containment policies have hit the Philippines harder than most developing countries. The government lockdown is among the strictest in the world, and blanket school closures are the lengthiest. This article uses a novel simulation model to estimate the gendered and regional impacts of these factors on labour, income and poverty, and a case study of school closures points to the losses in employment among private school teachers and in the income of parents with young children. The authors find that the pandemic has had unprecedented implications for economic activity and has disproportionately affected women.