Data and Code for: Gendered Disparities during the COVID-19 Crisis in Sierra Leone

The COVID-19 outbreak had severe adverse impacts on the health and the wealth of households in lower-income countries (LICs), and has affected even more severely female-headed households in LICs. Using high-frequency phone surveys in Sierra Leone, we show that female-headed households are likely to rely on cheaper food alternatives (e.g., Cassava) compared to male-headed households and are more food insecure. These effects are more nuanced among the poorest families, owning one or no assets. Furthermore, female-headed households had less access to COVID-19 information and are less likely to adopt preventive measures (e.g., masks and social distancing) at the onset of the pandemic and show greater signs of vaccine hesitancy in the early stages of COVID-19 vaccine campaign.

The following publications are supplemented by the data in this project.

• Egger, Dennis, Edward Miguel, Shana S. Warren, Ashish Shenoy, Elliott Collins, Dean Karlan, Doug Parkerson, et al. “Falling Living Standards during the COVID-19 Crisis: Quantitative Evidence from Nine Developing Countries.” Science Advances 7, no. 6 (February 5, 2021). https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.abe0997.

• Solís Arce, Julio S., Shana S. Warren, Niccolò F. Meriggi, Alexandra Scacco, Nina McMurry, Maarten Voors, Georgiy Syunyaev, et al. “COVID-19 Vaccine Acceptance and Hesitancy in Low- and Middle-Income Countries.” Nature Medicine 27, no. 8 (August 2021): 1385–94. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-021-01454-y.