News

CERGE-EI Researchers Succeded In TA ČR Grant Competition

26 October, 2020

The Technology Agency of the Czech Republic awarded support to Klára Kalíšková (main researcher) for a project proposal titled "Mapping the Effects of the Economic Crisis and Optimizing the Systems of Taxes, Benefits, Executions and Insolvencies to Mitigate its Adverse Effects", and René Levínský (co-researcher) for a project proposal titled "City for People, not for Virus".

Klára will focus on the economic effects of the covid-19 epidemic on society. The goal of her project is to provide the public administration with analyzes and tools for more effective optimization of benefit and tax systems and evaluation of their impact on population groups and assistance to affected population groups in combating the economic impacts of the COVID crisis.

René is a co-researcher in a project of creating a software tool for simulation of social ties and anti-epidemic measures, which will enable to compare the efficiency of these measures with their impact on individuals as well as on society. The core of this tool is a network model of COVID-19 spread in the CR.

The model combines longitudinal sociological data from Život během pandemie survey (interactions, work and spare time activities, economic impact on households etc.) with demographic and epidemiological data. This way the researchers estimate health, social, and economic impacts of various antiepidemic measures (quarantine, contact tracing, local closures). The planned outcome will help municipalities, firms or hospitals to compare the effects of given measures on individuals and communities.