Annotated Bibliography:
How Poverty in North America has Spiked Due to The Covid-19 Pandemic
Masa Torbica
EC281-H: Economic Writing
Wilfrid Laurier University
March 22nd, 2021
ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY
2
The Spike In Poverty Due To The Covid-19 Pandemic In North America
Poverty is an important issue when it comes to the covid-19 pandemic and the struggles
that many individuals face to try to maintain a living. Covid-19 has not only affected the lives of
many individuals in a negative facet, but has taken away the opportunity to find work, provide
income for families, and put food on the table. This paper examines the spike in poverty due to
the covid-19 pandemic in North America through unemployment. The analysis of the
unemployment rate is continuously increasing since the beginning of the pandemic and as a
result, many individuals are in no way finding work to provide any sort of income. Many
statistics have been taken to measure the increase of unemployment, results showing a dramatic
increase in the unemployment rate.
Other factors to the lack of revenue in the economy are due to the loss of income from
many self-employed individuals, as many small businesses are struggling to keep up against the
large corporations. Due to many businesses not obtaining the resources to withstand competition
with the larger competitors, there is shown to be a decrease in self-employment within the
pandemic.
Due to the effects of covid-19, there develops the issue of food securities within
households as well as available resources for individuals. Brady Deaton’s article sheds light upon
the severity of household families and the reduction of the food intake due to not having enough
finances to support every day living.
The research I have analysed and gathered shares a positive correlation to the increase in
poverty and lack of income in the covid-19 pandemic. I plan to demonstrate the relevant facts
and information leading to the lack of revenue in the economy. I strain my focus on providing
ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY
3
necessary information in the economic issue and research question of poverty and the effects of
the covid-19 pandemic in North America.
Annotated Bibliography:
The Spike In Poverty Due To The Covid-19 Pandemic In North America
Coglianese, J., & Chodorow-Reich, G. (2020, December). Projecting unemployment durations:
A factor-flows simulation approach with application to the COVID-19 recession.
ScienceDirect. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpubeco.2021.104398
This article is written by Gabriel Chodorow-Reich and John Coglianese. The
article highlights a new method as to measuring the unemployment distribution. Other
points this article runs through are the long-term unemployment periods happening
throughout the covid-19 pandemic. There are various statistics demonstrated throughout
the article such as “from a low of 3.5% in February 2020, the official unemployment rate
rose to a post-war high of 14.7% in April. The largest prior two-month increase in the
unemployment rate was 1.5 p.p. in 1975” (Coglianese, J., & Chodorow-Reich, G, 2020).
This statistic is important for my paper due to it directly relating to my argument of
Poverty. This is critical for my analysis because it demonstrates proof in the argument of
my research question. Unemployment is a contributing factor to poverty in covid-19, and
therefore is relevant to my research question.
Hensvik, L., Rathelot, R., & Le Barbanchon, T. (2020, December). Job search during the
COVID-19 crisis. ScienceDirect. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpubeco.2020.104349
This article is written by Author links open overlay panel Lena Hensvik, Thomas
Le Barbanchon, and Roland Rathelot at the Uppsala University, Sweden Bocconi
ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY
4
University, and Italy University of Warwick. This article provides an overview of job
search related to the covid-19 pandemic. This article demonstrates the negative impact on
the economy due to the influence of covid-19. The article provides relevant information
upon the reaction of the crisis of searching for jobs and unemployment rates. The article
states “Despite these measures, unemployment rises dramatically during the first weeks
of March with a peak inflow of new unemployment spells during the first week of April
[2020]” (Barbanchon., & Hensvik, 2020).
Brum, M., & De Rosa, M. (2021). Too little but not too late: Nowcasting poverty and cash
transfers’ incidence during COVID-19’s crisis . ScienceDirect.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2020.105227
This article was written by Matias Brum, Mauricio De Rosa and World
Development through the Universidad de la Republica, Montevideo and Paris School of
Economics. This article emphasizes the early estimates upon the short-run effects on the
crisis of the poverty rate in the covid-19 pandemic. This includes forecasts of future GDP
contractions in the economy as well as micro to macro impacts of households and
unemployment rates. They found that “the poverty rate grew by more than 38%, reaching
11.8% up from 8.5%” (Brum, M., & De Rosa, M. 2021). This is relevant information to
do with my research questions because unemployment rate is a huge contributor to
poverty in the covid-19 pandemic.
Deaton, B. J. (2020). Food security and Canada’s agricultural system challenged by COVID‐19.
Canadian Journal of Agricultural Economics/Revue Canadienne D’agroeconomie.
https://doi.org/https://doi-org.libproxy.wlu.ca/10.1111/cjag.12227
ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY
5
This article is written by Brady Deaton that shares the concern of food security in
the covid-19 pandemic. The article sheds light on the lack of income produced by
households as well as challenging the food supply and availability of food. The article
states “The loss of income associated with COVID‐19 is expected to increase measures
of food insecurity as derived from the Household Food Security Survey Module
(HFSSM) of the Canadian Community Health Survey (CCHS), conducted by Statistics
Canada” (Deaton, B. J. 2020). The article demonstrates the use of surveys taken to
measure food insecurity and lack of households generating income due to the effects of
covid-19. Many households are not able to buy food and as a result are consuming less of
which relates to the research question of poverty.
Beland, L.-P., Fakorede, O., & Mikola, D. (2020, July). Short-Term Effect of COVID-19 on
Self-Employed Workers in Canada. Project Muse; University of Toronto Press.
https://muse-jhu-edu.libproxy.wlu.ca/article/763028/pdf
This article is written by Louis-Philippe Beland, Oluwatobi Fakorede, and Derek
Mikola through the University of Toronto Press. This article demonstrates short-term
effects of covid-19 on the self employed individuals of Canada including many small
businesses owners. There is documented to be a decrease in ownership of businesses
within the commencement of the pandemic. It is quoted “We document an important
decrease in business ownership between February 2020 and May 2020 (–14.8 percent for
incorporated and –10.1 percent for unincorporated entities)” (Beland, L.-P., Fakorede, O.,
& Mikola, D. 2020). This is a serious contributor to poverty in covid-19 due to many
business owners failing to provide revenue and therefore forced to close. This article
ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY
6
provides more insight upon the topic of poverty in North America for those struggling in
the pandemic.