The Socioeconomic Impact of COVID-19 in Urban Informal Settlements

  1. Diego Gil
  2. Patricio Domínguez
  3. Eduardo A. Undurraga
  4. Eduardo Valenzuela

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Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has reached almost every corner of the world. Without a pharmaceutical solution, governments have been forced to implement regulations and public policies to control social behavior and prevent the spread of the virus. There is dramatic evidence of the social and economic effects of these measures and their disparate impact on vulnerable communities. Individuals living in urban informal settlements are in a structurally disadvantaged position to cope with a health crisis such as the COVID-19 pandemic. This paper examines the socioeconomic impact of the crisis brought by the pandemic in informal settlements in Chile. We use a three-wave panel study to compare the situation in informal settlements before and during the health crisis. We show that households living in informal settlements are paying a high toll. Their employment loss is dramatic, substantially larger than the loss reported in the general population, and has particularly affected the inmigrant population. We also find that the pandemic has triggered neighborhood cooperation within the settlements. Targeted government assistance programs have reached these communities; however, this group’s coverage is not enough to counteract the magnitude of the crisis. Our results suggest that governments, the non-profit sector, and the community need to urgently provide economic support and protections to individuals living in informal settlements and consider this opportunity for long-term improvements in these marginalized communities.

Highlights

  • Governments have implemented large-scale non-pharmaceutical interventions to control the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic

  • These measures have had dramatic social and economic effects on the population, particularly affecting vulnerable communities

  • Individuals living in urban informal settlements are in a structurally disadvantaged position to cope with this crisis

  • Using panel data, we document a dramatic employment loss among informal settlements dwellers, substantially larger than the general population

  • The pandemic has also triggered neighborhood cooperation within the settlements as well as targeted government assistance, but not enough to counteract the magnitude of the economic loss

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  1. ScreenIT

    SciScore for 10.1101/2021.01.16.21249935: (What is this?)

    Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.

    Table 1: Rigor

    Institutional Review Board Statementnot detected.
    Randomizationnot detected.
    Blindingnot detected.
    Power Analysisnot detected.
    Sex as a biological variablenot detected.

    Table 2: Resources

    No key resources detected.

    Results from OddPub: We did not detect open data. We also did not detect open code. Researchers are encouraged to share open data when possible (see Nature blog).

    Results from LimitationRecognizer: We detected the following sentences addressing limitations in the study:
    Some of these communities’ vulnerabilities to infectious diseases include inadequate water, sewage, and hygiene infrastructure; insufficient or nonexistant waste collection; material deprivation; space limitations; and overcrowding [26,63,64]. These characteristics need to be considered when implementing large scale regulations and policies to control a pandemic, as the livelihoods of people in informal settlements are more vulnerable to external shocks in the economy. Some researchers have conceptualized these communities as “poverty traps”, which prevent low-income families from accumulating the economic and social resources necessary to improve their disadvantaged situation [37]. Other authors have provided a more complex picture of informal settlements, conceiving these urban enclaves as low-cost housing options for vulnerable individuals that aim to take advantage of the access that the settlements provide to the economic and social opportunities that a city brings [36]. Individuals in some informal urban settlements may have better access to economic and social urban opportunities – such as connectivity, jobs, social networks, and community organizations – than low-income individuals in government-subsidized housing projects [39,55,56]. Urban informal settlements may be a relevant source of economic activity and income in a city and may run social, political, and cultural initiatives [39,65,66]. Governments, non-profits, and the community need to act quickly to provide ...

    Results from TrialIdentifier: No clinical trial numbers were referenced.

    Results from Barzooka: We did not find any issues relating to the usage of bar graphs.

    Results from JetFighter: We did not find any issues relating to colormaps.

    Results from rtransparent:
    • Thank you for including a conflict of interest statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • Thank you for including a funding statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • No protocol registration statement was detected.

    About SciScore

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  2. Version published to 10.1101/2021.01.16.21249935v1 on medRxiv