Output Scripts for BPEA Paper “Measuring the Labor Market at the Onset of the COVID-19 Crisis”

Scripts in this folder create figures and tables for the BPEA paper. The sequence of the scripts indicates potential dependency.

Output (do files)

Script Description
01_decomposition.do Identifies how hours worked for our baseline firms change each week relative to the baseline period.
We also decompose hours losses into shutdowns (where firms laid off all workers), layoffs at still open firms, and hours reductions by retained workers.

Uses: homebase_raw_2020_update.dta
Creates: decomposition_hoursreduction_byweek_withtextlabel.png ; decomposition.dta
02_rehires_oct25.do Identifies, among the Homebase firms which reopened, after having shut down:
(1) the share of hours relative to their baseline they have restored, and
(2) the proportion of those restored work hours worked by previous employees versus new hires.

Uses: homebase_raw_2020_update.dta
Creates: rehires_stackedbar.png; rehires_stackedbar.dta
03a_worker_history.do Use 2018-2019 Homebase file to identify whether and if so how much workers worked at firm before 2020.
Save file with these variables in a file that we’ll use in 03b_workerlevel_prob_laidoff_rehires_oct25.do.

Uses: homebase_raw_pre_2020.dta
Creates: homebase_worker_history.dta
03b_workerlevel_prob_laidoff_rehires_oct25.do Identifies the workers who were laid off and rehired, and estimates how worker characterictics predict being laid off or rehired.

Uses: homebase_worker_history.dta; homebase_raw_2020_update.dta
Creates: margins_policies_coefs.csv; alllaidoffworkers_prob_results.xlsx
04_firmlevel_prob_shutdown_reopen_oct25.do Identifies likelihood of a firm shutting down and/or reopening by firm characteristics, namely size and growth rate.

Uses: homebase_raw_2020_update.dta; homebase_raw_pre_2020.dta
Creates: firmlevel_prob_combined.png; firmlevel_ests_evershutdown.ster; firmlevel_ests_reopened.ster
05_readrawcps.do Reads in raw CPS monthly files

Uses: jan20pub.dat.gz, feb20pub.dat.gz, mar20pub.dat.gz, apr20pub.dat.gz, may20pub.dat.gz, jun20pub.dat.gz (all in data_raw/cps/ folder)
Creates: cpsb2001.dta.gz, cpsb2002.dta.gz, cpsb2003.dta.gz, cpsb2004.dta.gz, cpsb2005.dta.gz, cpsb2006.dta.gz
05sub_cpsbjan15.do Helper program for 05_readrawcps.do, used to read in (infile) the original data.
05sub_cpsbjan15.dct Data dictionary called by 05sub_cpsbjan15.do.
06_combinecps.do Creates a single data set from all six monthly CPS files.

Uses: cpsb2001.dta.gz, cpsb2002.dta.gz, cpsb2003.dta.gz, cpsb2004.dta.gz, cpsb2005.dta.gz, cpsb2006.dta.gz
Creates: 06_combinecps.dta
07_cpslookahead.do Creates a person-by-month panel from the CPS data.

Uses: 06_combinecps.dta
Creates: 07_cpslookahead.dta
08_cpsregs.do Estimates regressions for layoff and rehiring in CPS data.

Uses: 07_cpslookahead.dta, ppp_stc_sel.dta (from data_clean/ppp/)
Creates: 08_cpsregs.csv, 08_cpsregs_policies.csv
09_cesseries.do Summarizes industry employment changes in CES data.

Uses: ce.series.txt, ce.data.0.AllCESSeries.txt
Creates: 09_cesseries.gph, 09_cesseries_2.gph, 09_cesseries_2_pres.gph

Output (R scripts)

Script Description
bpea_1_event_study_data.R Prepares data files for event studies.
bpea_0_f_reg.R Functions that run event study regressions.
bpea_0_f_reades.R Functions that read event study results.
bpea_1_event_study_reg.R Runs event study regressions and saves results.
bpea_1_firm_survival.R Calculates firm survival rates.
bpea_1_worker_hours.R Calculates results related to worker’s hours.
bpeao_P1.Rmd Basic trends. Figure 1.
bpeao_P2_surv_demogr.Rmd Results related to demographics of survey respondents. Table B2.
bpeao_P2_surv_rep.Rmd Results related to representativeness of survey respondents. Table B1, Figure B1.
bpeao_P3_event_study_sel.Rmd Results related to event studies. Figure 5, C6, C7, C8.
bpeao_P4_ui_ppp.Rmd Results related to UI and PPP. Figure 6, C9, C11.
bpeao_PA_firm_rep.Rmd Results related to firm representativeness. Figure A1, A2, A3.
bpeao_PA_firm_survival.Rmd Results related to firm survival. Figure C5.
bpeao_PA_worker_hours.Rmd Results related to workers’ hours. Figure C3, C4.