Masterclass: Tito Boeri

 

The fellows had recently the pleasure to discuss with Professor Tito Boeri the impact of Covid-19 on existing jobs and social clusters.

The discussion was on safest jobs and double risks jobs, the ones in which one is exposed to both the infectious risk and the loss of the income itself.

Professor Boeri showed an in depth research in which a lot of factors were investigated to understand which part of population was most at risk due to the pandemic (e.g. gender, proximity to people while working, usage grade of emails, temporary or long term contracts,...).

Turns out that Covid-19 is not a great leveller, as the research suggested that low educated temporary contracts and migrants are the most affected by the mentioned double risks.

According to Professor Boeri double vulnerability needs double protection: these people witness high risk of job loss and health problems. This can be solved with better social protection, in order to prevent poverty spreading and health infrastructure to prevent poverty related outbreaks of infection.

One of the possible outcomes is reallocation and wage setting for low skilled workers, they may result in being involved in new unskilled jobs, such as for example sanification or control of social distancing, but of course these are high risk activities, so will there be a risk premium for them?

Thank you Professor Boeri for the great insights!