RAPID: Understanding the Disparate Impact of COVID-19

There is anecdotal evidence that the COVID-19 pandemic has disproportionately affected communities of color and poor communities than relatively affluent communities. This research will use two projects to systematically study the causes and consequences of disparate effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on different socioeconomic groups. The first project uses new cross state survey data to investigate whether access to public health insurance for the poor reduces the chances that individuals contract the COVID-19 disease. The unique way the researchers collect the data and the methodology they use allows them to establish a causal relationship between public health insurance access and COVID-19 spread. The second project will use a different cross-state survey data to investigate the effects of COVID-19 on political and ideological preferences. The results of this research project will provide important inputs into policies to reduce the disparate effects of the pandemic on different groups and indirectly reduce the rate of spread and its negative impact in the aggregate.

This research project investigates the disparate effects of COVID-19 on different communities. The project will collect data from adjoining counties across states that expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and those that did not and use regression discontinuity (RD) design to estimate the causal effects of access to public health insurance on the probability of getting COVID-19. The second project will use panel survey data to investigate the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on political ideology, beliefs, and participation. This project is based on panel data collected from 1000 individuals in 8 states. The sampling frame, and details of the data collected allows the PIs to establish a causal relationship while controlling for a wide variety of socioeconomic and policy variables. By studying the causes and consequences of the disparate effects of COVID-19, this research provides a broader and more nuanced effects of COVID-19 than had hitherto been provided. The results of this research project will provide important inputs into policies to reduce the disparate effects of the pandemic on different groups and indirectly reduce the rate of spread and its negative impact in the aggregate.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.