Margaret McClure
Analyzing Wide-Ranging Impacts of COVID-19 in Armenia
I spent this summer with the Social Protection and Labor division of the World Bank, alongside the Poverty and Equity Global Practice team in the ECA region. I worked with members of both teams to oversee the rollout of the second wave of the COVID-19 Armenia High-Frequency Survey and to analyze the resulting data from the survey, which assessed the ongoing impact of COVID-19 in Armenia, in particular on employment, income, and migration, especially among vulnerable groups. My primary task was analyzing the survey data as it related to employment, skills gaps, and digital-banking readiness among key groups that included those receiving social benefits, households with migrants, and those who had lost their jobs following the pandemic. I learned a great deal about effective survey design and implementation, honed my quantitative analysis skills, and produced presentations and briefs on our key findings and their policy implications.