The Economic Vulnerability Assessment was initiated by CERP Labs to provide the public with data presented with respect to the economic effects and hardships faced by people in lockdown. When the COVID-19 crisis struck, there was much discussion about the trade-off between locking down to slow the spread of the disease and the associated economic costs that possibly could not be borne by large swaths of the Pakistani population. Leveraging samples from ongoing CERP research projects as well as Random Digit Dialing, Labs was able to arrange and run a phone survey to determine the extent of income loss, consumption changes, loan and bill pay issues, food insecurity and attitudes towards lockdowns and COVID. The Economic Vulnerability Assessment has turned into a full-fledged research activity, with the same primary goal of informing the public with respect to the long-lasting economic cost of COVID in Punjab. Labs continues to aid in the management and development of an online dashboard to better convey the story to the wider public.
