Regional and Sectorial Impacts of the Covid-19 Crisis: Evidence from Electronic Payments
Regional and Sectorial Impacts of the Covid-19 Crisis: Evidence from Electronic Payments
ABSTRACT
We use novel and comprehensive monthly data on electronic payments, by municipality and sector, together with cash withdrawals, to study the impact of Covid-19 in Portugal. Our difference-in-differences event study identifies a causal decrease of 17 and 40 percentage points on the year-on-year growth rate of overall purchases in March and April 2020. We document a stronger impact of the crisis in more central and more urban municipalities, due to a combination of the sectorial composition effect of the local economy and the sharper confinement behavioral effect in these locations. We discuss the importance of tourism for the results.
About Instructors
Susana Peralta
Susana Peralta holds a PhD in Economics from the Université Catholique de Louvain, in Belgium. Her research focuses on the economics of multi-layered governments, including tax competition and political economy issues.
Bruno Pessoa Carvalho
Bruno Pessoa Carvalho holds a PhD in Economics from Nova SBE and a Research Master's degree from the same institution. Bruno is currently a Visiting Professor at the Department of Economics of Universidad Carlos III de Madrid and he is an Associate Fellow at ECARES (SBS-EM, Université Libre de Bruxelles).
João Pereira dos Santos
João Pereira dos Santos holds a PhD in Economics from Nova SBE. He is a researcher at Queen Mary University of London, a research affiliate at IZA and a research fellow at the Kiel Institute for the World Economy and the RWI – Leibniz Institute for Economic Research.