that our results are probably not driven by gender differences in occupational structure but more likely by childcare needs.

# **5 Heterogeneities According to Social-Distancing Measures**

This section explores potential heterogeneities in the previous results depending on the social-distancing measures adopted by the countries in our sample. We start by describing the indices that we use to capture government policies in this regard.

## **5.1 The Stringency Index**

Immediately after the onset of the pandemic governments around the world imposed strong measures aimed at containing the spread of the disease, including lockdowns, travel restrictions, school closures, and various social-distancing measures. The socioeconomic impact of the pandemic is expected to be affected by the stringency of these measures. Economies in which these non-pharmaceutical interventions were stricter probably experienced a stronger shock, at least in the short run, than those where the containment measures were less rigorous.

Measuring the stringency of the policy reactions to the pandemic is however a tricky task as it involves all sorts of data and aggregation issues. In this section we use the Stringency Index of the Oxford COVID-19 Government Response Tracker (OxCGRT). The OxCGRT collects information on policy measures that governments have taken to tackle COVID-19. The different policy responses cover more than 180 countries and are coded into 23 indicators, recorded on a scale to reflect the extent of government action. This initiative, explained and documented in Hale et al. (2021), has become the most widely used database of the containment measures taken around the world.<sup>18</sup> In this section we use the Stringency Index of the OxCGRT. This index records the strictness of lockdown-style policies that restrict people’s behavior. It is calculated using all ordinal containment and closure policy indicators, plus an indicator recording public information campaigns. The index is computed as a simple average of the 9 following indicators rescaled to a maximum of 100: school closing, workplace closing, cancel of public events, restrictions on gatherings, close of public transport, stay-at-home requirements, restrictions on internal movement, international travel controls, and public information campaigns.<sup>19</sup> The index and each component reflect the presence and intensity of the

> 18For instance, see Bakker and Goncalves (2021); OECD (2020); De la Vega and Gasparini (2021); Neidhöfer and Neidhöfer (2020).

> 19 The definitions of the indicators are the following. (1) _School closing_ : 0=no measures; 1=recommend closing or all schools open with alterations resulting in significant differences compared to non-COVID-19 operations; 2=require closing (only some levels or categories); 3=require closing all levels. (2) _Workplace closing_ : 0 =no measures; 1=recommend closing (or recommend work from home) or all businesses open with alterations resulting in significant differences compared to non-COVID-19 operation; 2=require closing (or work from home) for some sectors or categories of workers; 3=require closing (or work from home) for all-but-essential workplaces.(3) _Cancel public events_ : 0=no measures; 1=recommend canceling; 2=require canceling. (4) _Restrictions on gatherings_ : 0=no restrictions; 1=restrictions on very large gatherings

13