Episode 1: Why Does COVID-19 Affect Poor Households? -- with Michael Stepner

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected the U.S economy at an incredibly rapid pace. Michael Stepner presents his most recent work with Opportunity Insights. Combining anonymized data from private companies, the Opportunity Insights Economic Tracker provides a real-time picture of how the economy is performing. How and where do people spend their money? Who are the most vulnerable workers? Where are located the most affected businesses? What is the impact of state-ordered reopenings, small business loans and stimulus checks on consumption?

Recommendations:

• Podcast Threshold Season 1 https://www.thresholdpodcast.org/season01
• "The Slaughter of the Bison and Reversal of Fortunes on the Great Plains", by Donna Feir, Rob Gillezeau & Maggie E.C. Jones https://www.minneapolisfed.org/~/media/files/community/indiancountry/resources-education/working-papers/cicd-wp-2019-01.pdf

Paper:

• "How Did COVID-19 and Stabilization Policies Affect Spending and Employment? A New Real-Time Economic Tracker Based on Private Sector Data", by Raj Chetty, John N. Friedman, Nathaniel Hendren, Michael Stepner, and the Opportunity Insights Team https://opportunityinsights.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/tracker_paper.pdf
• Opportunity Insights https://opportunityinsights.org