Governments worldwide implemented restrictions on social and economic activity to suppress COVID-19. This global analysis, using Gallup World Poll data from 321,000 adults in 117 countries (July 2020-March 2021), examines job and income losses linked to these restrictions. Nearly half the world's adult population experienced income loss, strongly associated with lower well-being and financial hardship. Multilevel modeling reveals a strong positive association between policy stringency and economic harm, with steeper gradients for low-socioeconomic-status workers. School closures, stay-at-home orders, and economic restrictions were strongly linked to harm, unlike contact tracing, mass testing, and elderly protections.

Jonathan T. Rothwell, Alexandru Cojocaru, Rajesh Srinivasan, Yeon Soo Kim