COVID-19: An Illusion of Productivity and a Reality of Inequality

Using papers posted on SSRN or published (following the Web of Science) from July 2016 to August 2021 by authors from Top-1,000 business schools and economics departments, we investigate the effect of COVID-19 on research productivity. We find that productivity declines, except for male and senior authors from Top-50 departments. Part of the increase for these authors appears superficial, driven by shorter and less readable papers, revisions, and more co-authors.
Besides negatively affecting productivity, the COVID-19 pandemic increased inequality between universities and authors.
Finally, we investigate channels and which factors mitigated the impact: Closing policies proportionate with COVID severity, large and diverse departments, online teaching readiness, and availability of resources to hire new faculty helped mitigate this negative impact.

Keywords: COVID-19, productivity, inequality, behavioral

JEL Classification: A11, A14, J24, J16, J78

Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation

Jiang, Yuxiang and Rösch, Dominik and Liu, Ruijie and Tiu, Cristian Ioan, COVID-19: An Illusion of Productivity and a Reality of Inequality (November 18, 2022). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4086866 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4086866