We use the case of Chile to analyze the effectiveness of a spatially blind employment relief program (hereafter referred to as the LPE program) established by the Chilean government and implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic. Chile is an interesting case because on the one hand its nonpharmaceutical interventions were spatially driven by health indicators based on small geographical areas; hence, producing sizeable regional and temporal variation of the local conditions induced by the COVID-19 pandemic. On the other hand, the LPE program was designed and implemented nationally without distinction of local labor market or pandemic conditions, and each firm could decide whether to enroll in the program. By exploiting the spatial-temporal variation of exogenously imposed lockdowns and using a difference-in-differences panel data framework, we find that the LPE program was only effective for a group of regions in the country but, more importantly, that the LPE program was less effective during lockdowns. Moreover, the requirements of the LPE program were vague and did not target specific populations or entities. Consequently, our results suggest that women, informal and small firm workers, and most economic sectors throughout the country were less able to take advantage of the benefits of this program.

中文翻译：

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COVID-19 和就业救济计划：针对空间驱动的流行病的空间盲目政策的故事

我们以智利为例，分析了智利政府制定并在 COVID-19 大流行期间实施的空间盲就业救济计划（以下简称 LPE 计划）的有效性。智利是一个有趣的案例，因为一方面，其非药物干预措施在空间上是由基于小地理区域的健康指标驱动的；因此，由 COVID-19 大流行引起的当地条件产生了相当大的区域和时间变化。另一方面，LPE计划是在全国范围内设计和实施的，不考虑当地劳动力市场或疫情状况，每个企业都可以决定是否参加该计划。通过利用外源性封锁的时空变化并使用双重差分面板数据框架，我们发现 LPE 计划仅对该国的一组地区有效，但更重要的是，LPE 计划在封锁期间效果较差。此外，LPE计划的要求模糊，不针对特定人群或实体。因此，我们的结果表明，妇女、非正规和小企业工人以及全国大多数经济部门不太能够利用该计划的好处。