Seema Jayachandran will present descriptive data related to covid-19 that was collected as part of an ongoing evaluation in Punjab that will assess the effectiveness of conditional cash transfers in reducing crop burning and, thereby, improving air quality and child health. Alongside this evaluation the team has recently been collecting data through phone surveys on how the covid-19 lockdown has impacted agricultural households. This includes questions related to: production, output marketing, price expectations, food security and other coping strategies.

She will be joined by Namrata Kala, who has been doing similar work on the effects of the covid-19 lockdown on agricultural households in Bihar, including effects on migration and income.

Speaker: Seema Jayachandran, Professor of Economics, Northwestern University and Co-Chair, Cash Transfers for Child Health Initiative