The Buffering Effects of Social Insurance for the Spread of Covid-19

Global pandemics are associated with substantial losses of human capital. The best strategy policymakers in public health before a population-wide vaccination is to reduce the outbreak disease and finding ways alleviate its negative consequences society. Previous studies show that welfare programs have externalities unintended areas for unplanned outcomes including wide range outcomes. In this paper, we payments under Unemployment Insurance (UI) program potential spread novel coronavirus. Applying difference-in-difference technique on monthly data all US counties from January 2020 2021, document social insurance umbrella UI can transmission rate Covid-19. results heterogeneity across subsample largest effects among blacks, poor, low educated regions