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The rise of working from home (WFH) has been though to amplify existing labor market inequalities because it often disadvantages certain social groups in terms of prevalence and wage returns. The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) sponsored a research partnership between Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP) and Columbia University to investigate differences in earnings penalties associated with WFH between groups of gender and race before and during the COVID-19 pandemic in Brazil. The study explains how and why the earnings penalty associated with WFH diminished for White and Black men during the pandemic while remaining high for White and Black women.

The development of effective policies for agricultural adaptation to climate change requires an understanding of how impacts are related to exposures and vulnerability, the specific dimensions of the climate system that will undergo the most significant changes, where human impacts will be most severe, and the institutions best suited to respond. A study conducted through a partnership between the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), and Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP) evaluated how the agricultural sector in Brazil (production, prices, and loans) is affected by variations in the more predictable components of temperature and rainfall, including trends, seasonality, and unexpected shocks. The study found increased variation in yields and revenues and higher agricultural loan defaults. The authors discuss how resilience strategies should focus on institutions such as water storage, financial services, and reinsurance.

Climate conditions can affect fertility through biological and behavioral mechanisms. Biological mechanisms include, for example, natural sterility, spontaneous intrauterine mortality, and duration of the fertile period. Behavioral mechanisms include, for example, perceptions that certain temperature and precipitation conditions can be unfavorable to births during particular seasons or due to weather shocks. The study developed by Leticia Junqueira Marteleto (University of Pennsylvania), Alexandre Gori Maia (UNICAMP), and Cristina Guimarães Rodrigues (FIPE/USP) analyzes the impacts of climate conditions on fertility over a period of a public health crisis in Brazil, the Zika epidemic. Findings suggest that increases in temperature and precipitation are associated with birth declines. The authors also show how fertility changes in response to climate conditions have increased during the Zika epidemic, particularly in urban areas.

The article recently published in The Economist cites the paper written by João Paulo Mastrangelo (Universidade Federal do Acre) and Alexandre Gori Maia (Universidade Estadual de Campinas) to highlight the importance of the rule of law to control deforestation in the Amazon. Land-grabbing is widespread in the region. Land-grabbers invade public land, deforest it, and sell it to ranchers. Clearer property rights would help to protect the forest because owners would invest in the long run rather than stripping land and flipping it. They would also make it easy to identify who should be paid for conserving land or fined for spoiling it.

People share and seek information online that reflects a variety of social phenomena, including concerns about health conditions. The study recently published by Alexandre Gori Maia (UNICAMP) and colleagues (Daniel Morales Martínez - UNICAMP, Leticia  Marteleto - UT at Austin, Cristina Guimaraes Rodrigues - FIPE/USP, and Luiz Gustavo Sereneo - UNICAMP) analyzed how the contents of the social network Twitter may provide real-time information to monitor and anticipate policies aimed at controlling or mitigating public health outbreaks. The authors collected tweets on the COVID-19 pandemic with content ranging from safety measures, vaccination, health, to politics. The study then highlights how mentions of selected keywords can significantly explain future COVID-19 cases and deaths in one locality. Two main theoretical mechanisms help explain the links between Twitter contents and COVID-19 diffusion: risk perception and health behavior.