Discussion Paper

Understanding the Racial and Income Gap in COVID-19: Essential Workers


Abstract: This is the fourth and final post in this series aimed at understanding the gap in COVID-19 intensity by race and by income. The previous three posts focused on the role of mediating variables—such as uninsurance rates, comorbidities, and health resource in the first post; public transportation, and home crowding in the second; and social distancing, pollution, and age composition in the third—in explaining the racial and income gap in the incidence of COVID-19. In this post, we now investigate the role of employment in essential services in explaining this gap.

Keywords: COVID-19; race; heterogeneity; essential workers;

JEL Classification: I14;

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Bibliographic Information

Provider: Federal Reserve Bank of New York

Part of Series: Liberty Street Economics

Publication Date: 2021-01-12

Number: 20210112d

Note: Heterogeneity Series V: The Racial and Income Gap in COVID-19