I started a compiling a list of data sources, reports and other resources related to the COVID-19 crisis and the likely consequences for businesses and consumers. This list is both to help me understand what is happening, and to help me have an informed opinion on what needs to be done to minimise the societal and economic costs of this crisis. After all,  while the present focus should 100% be on saving lives and slowing the spread of the virus, soon we will need to turn our attention to saving livelihoods. I can’t do the former, but I can help with the latter.

My plan is to use this list to inform discussions with my colleagues and others, about the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on markets (consumers, brands, organisations), and to generate ideas of how we can help the economy. I am thinking of conducting part of these discussions at a distance, possibly using collaborative software. So, do let me know if you want to join in.

 

This is a very incomplete list (I just started it!), and the resources listed here are very much biased to issues related to my research interests. Nonetheless, but I thought that I would share it with you, as it is, in case it can help you, too. Please share your recommendations of high quality resources, in the comments below.

 

UPDATES

• May 3rd:
  • Changed Covid19 to COVID-19, to be consistent with the WHO’s terminology
  • Changed layout of the tables
  • Added resources marked with [1]
• May 8th:
  • Created table “Focus on governments / countries / regions”
  • Added resources marked with [2]

About COVID-19

These resources refer to the virus itself (source, how it spreads, likely evolution), as well as about the illness that it causes (symptoms, number of cases, mortality…), and possible treatments.

Insight	Source
What we know about the virus, and what we don’t know	BBC
The epidemiological model informing policymaking in the UK and other countries	Imperial College
About the principles informing epidemiological models [1]	Nature
Number of deaths per country	FT
How the disease is evolving around the world (number of cases, mortality rate and deaths), as well as testing	Our World in Data
Reported Cases and Deaths by Country, Territory, or Conveyance (inc logarithmic data) [1]	Worldometer
COVID-19 datasets from around the world [1]	Amazon AWS
About how to interpret data on deaths, new cases, etc… [In Portuguese] [1]	FC-UL
When the pandemic is predicted to peak in various countries: In the UK, peak is most likely to occur before 11 April [1]	LSE blog
COVID-19 may be far more prevalent than previously thought [1]	Economist
Are you immune if you’ve had coronavirus? What we know and don’t know [1]	FactCheck Channel 4
Antibiotic resistance complicates the care of many COVID-19 patients	STAT
About Remdesivir drug, which seems to help treat COVID-19 [1]/[2]	BBC / MIT Tech Review
AstraZeneca teams up with Oxford University on vaccine. Testing started late April. Data from this phase of testing could be available by mid-June. Vaccine ‘could be ready by end of year’. [1]	BBC
Air conditioning in restaurants may spread virus [2]	Center for Disease Control and Prevention

 

Short term impact

These resources refer to immediate reactions to the COVID-19 pandemic, and the short-term impact of those reactions.

 

Focusing on individuals / consumers

Insight	Source
People’s movements during the crisis. Data by country and region (within each country). Allows for comparisons across countries	Google
Changes in consumer perceptions and behaviour (e.g., use of face masks), in various countries.	YouGov
International tracker [1]	YouGov
Corona beer’s brand is suffering from negative perceptions	CNN
Panic buying leads to empty shelves in supermarkets	The Economist
Self-isolating, volunteering and other behaviours, across 13 countries [1]	YouGov
Household spending [1]	IFS
‘Screen time’ has gone from sin to survival tool [1]	Washington Post
Online searching behaviour [1]	Google
British consumers drinking more at home [1]	YouGov
British consumers using more corner shops [1]	YouGov
Demand for hair-dye increases [1]	CNN
Surge in online shopping	Guardian

 

Focusing on organisations / industries

Insight	Source
Industries seeing increased demand during the crisis	Forbes
Amazon workers strike over lack of safety precautions against COVID-19	BBC
Social media companies issue statement re: efforts to fight misinformation during COVID-19 crisis	TechCrunch
Businesses’ response	ONS
Banks are restricting mortgage lending	BBC
Advice on strategy development for / during the crisis [2]	McKinsey
Operational changes that Starbucks made in stores in China, after lockdown [2]	Forbes

 

Focus on governments / countries / regions

Insight	Source
How different governments are using surveillance technology for contact tracing + [2]	HRW / One Zero
UK Government’s support for businesses	Gov.uk
UK Government’s support for self-employed	Gov.uk
Timeline of UK and German responses to the coronavirus outbreak [2]	Buzzfeed
Austria and Italy reopen some shops as lockdown eased [2]	BBC
Europe’s economic policy response to the Covid-19 crisis [2]	LSE
How UK might lift lockdown restrictions [2]	BBC
Thermal cameras being tested at Bournemouth airport as way of detecting people infected with COVID-19 (but will not work for asymptomatic cases) [2]	BBC

 

Long term impact

These resources reflect on the likely, long-term impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on macro factors.

 

Political dimension

Insight	Source

 

Economic dimension

Insight	Source
Impact on payments’ industry	McKinsey
Support measures will leave some self-employed financially better off, but some will get no support at all.	IFS
Young workers and the worst paid are the most likely to be affected by the closure of businesses	BBC
Analysis of media survival times of business, based on fixed costs per sector, suggests mass closures [2]	LSE
UK government’s projections of impact on the economy and public finances [2]	Office for Budget Responsibility

 

Social dimension

Insight	Source
How the crisis exacerbates gender inequality	BBC
Number of deaths in England and Wales for those who did not contract COVID-19 has also demonstrated an absolute and relative increase [1]	medRxiv

 

Technological dimension

Insight	Source

How you can help

You can share your links to high quality databases, reports or commentary, in the comments’ section. Information is essential to help us understand what is happening, and to help us make informed predictions about the impact on consumers and organisations.

 

You can also help me formulate research questions, and plan research designs to tackle those questions. And you can engage other researchers in developing a research agenda that will assist economic and social recovery.

 

And the best thing is that we can do all these, while staying home, and helping slow down the spread of the virus.