The Covid-19 pandemic has triggered a world-wide economic and health crisis quite unlike any crunch experienced in recent years. In an attempt to map the consequences of this turmoil as well as measures taken against it, various institutions – including e.g. the IMF, ECB or Oxford University – compiled crisis-related information into the datasets listed below. Most of these focus on actions taken by governments and other official institutions to prevent a further spread of the virus and measures aimed at strengthening the economy.
Links to data sources
Summarizes national measures taken in response to the Covi-19 pandemic. The dataset is focused on reductions in different capital buffer restrictions, including e.g. countercyclical capital and systemic risk buffers, as well as the postponement of new regulation.
Data Provider: ECB
Level/Frequency: Country/-
Geographic Coverage: Eurozone
Availability: Free access online
Covid-19 Financial Response Tracker (YPFS)
Provides information on interventions by central banks, fiscal authorities, and organizations aimed at restoring financial stability during the Covid-19 crisis. Data is gathered mainly from official government websites, but also includes non-governmental proposals.
Data Provider: Yale Program on Financial Stability (YPFS)
Level/Frequency: Country-Level Data
Geographic Coverage: World
Time Range: from February 2020 onwards
Availability: Free access online
Capital Measures in the Covid-19 Crisis (YPFS)
Provides data on capital measures taken in response to the Covid-19 crisis. The database compiles general information concerning the programs, highlights interesting features of those, offers a brief evaluation and provides further sources of information.
Data Provider: Yale Program on Financial Stability (YPFS)
Level/Frequency: Country-Level Data
Geographic Coverage: World
Time Range: 2020 –
Availability: Free access online
COVID exposure indices dervied from PlaceIQ movement data
Contains data on location and device exposure indices on the basis of smartphone movements from January 2020 to August 2021.
Data Provider: PlaceIQ
Level/Frequency: State-Level Data; Country-Level Data
Geographic Coverage: USA
Time Range: January 2020 – August 2021
Availability: Free access online
Fiscal Monitor Database of Country Fiscal Measures in Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic
Summarizes government measures planned and implemented in response to the Covid-19 crisis across 55 countries. Data is categorized into above-the line measures, below-the-line-measures and contingent liabilities.
Data Provider: International Monetary Fund (IMF)
Level/Frequency: Country-Level Data
Geographic Coverage: World
Time Range: 2020 –
Availability: Free access online
Bruegel Dataset on Covid-19 Fiscal Responses
Summarizes and compares various fiscal responses to the Covid-19 crisis. It includes discretionary measures taken by EU countries and the United Kingdom, as well as the US, classified into immediate fiscal impulses, deferrals, and other liquidity provisions and guarantees.
Data Provider: BRUEGEL
Level/Frequency: Country-Level Data
Geographic Coverage: EU countries, UK, US
Time Range: 2020 –
Availability: Free access online
ESRB Policy measures in response to the COVID-19 pandemic
Contains data on policy actions taken by EU member states as well as national authorities in response to the Covid-19 crisis. It differentiates between macro-and microprudential measures, fiscal responses and market-based measures, and provides information concerning key dates, implementing institution and country, and program descriptions.
Data Provider: ESRB
Level/Frequency: Country-Level Data
Geographic Coverage: World
Time Range: 2020 –
Availability: Free access online
EC Policy measures taken against the spread and impact of the coronavirus
Summarizes policy actions related to the Covid-19 pandemic taken in EU member countries thus far. Measures are classified in expenditure measures; tax measures; sectorial, regional, or measures other than fiscal; and any other measures.
Provider: European Commission
Level/Frequency: Country-Level Data
Geographic Coverage: EU countries
Time Range: 2020 –
Availability: Free access online
Pandemic emergency purchase programme (PEPP) against COVID-19 pandemic
The ECB’s pandemic emergency purchase programme (PEPP) is a non-standard monetary policy measure initiated in March 2020 to counter the serious risks to the monetary policy transmission mechanism and the outlook for the euro area posed by the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak. The PEPP is a temporary asset purchase programme of private and public sector securities, which has an overall envelope of €750 billion. All asset categories eligible under the existing asset purchase programme (APP) are also eligible under the new programme.
Provider: European Central Bank
Level/Frequency: Country-Level Data / weekly basis
Geographic Coverage: EU countries
Time Range: 2020 –
Availability: Free access online – data published soon
COVID-19 Finance Sector Related Policy Responses
The data set tracks measures that governments have taken to support their financial sector following the spread of the COVID-19 respiratory virus. Policies are classified according four main categories: liquidity/funding, financial institutions, financial markets and payments systems (Level 1 policy). Each category has different sub-categories (Level 2 policy measures described under legend).
Provider: World Bank
Level/Frequency: Country-Level Data
Geographic Coverage: World
Time Range: 2020 –
Availability: Free access online
Coronavirus Government Response Tracker
The OxCGRT systematically collects information on several different common policy responses national governments have taken in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, scores the stringency of such measures, and aggregates these scores into a common Stringency Index. Eleven indicators of government response are provided; seven indicators are policies such as school closures and travel bans, and four are financial indicators such as fiscal or monetary measures.
Data Provider: Oxford University
Level/Frequency: Country-Level Data
Geographic Coverage: World
Time Range: 2020 –
Availability: Free access online
Governments’ Responses to COVID-19 (Response2covid19)
The dataset tracks governments’ responses to COVID-19 all around the world. It tracks 17 measures – 12 public health measures and 7 economic measures – taken by 229 governments.
Data Provider: S. Porcher – Université Paris – Panthéon Sorbonne
Level/Frequency: Country-level data
Geographic Coverage: 229 governments
Time Range: January-May 2020
Availability: Free access online
A global database on central banks’ monetary responses to Covid-19
The database contains data on central bank’s responses to Covid-19 in 39 countries. The database includes monetary policy announcements that are classified under five categories: interest rates, reserve policies, lending operations, asset purchase programmes and foreign exchange tools. For each category, additional information such as maturity, eligible counterparties, types of assets, and the availability of fiscal backup is available.
Data Provider: Bank for International Settlements (BIS)
Level/Frequency: Country-level data
Geographic Coverage: 39 countries
Time Range: February 2020 –
Availability: Free access online
Tracking government responses towards COVID-19
The CoronaNet Research Project compiles a database on government responses to the corona virus. Our main focus is to collect as much information as we can about the various fine-grained actions governments are taking to defeat the coronavirus. This includes not only gathering information about which governments are responding to the coronavirus, but who they are targeting the policies toward (e.g. other countries), how they are doing it (e.g. travel restrictions, banning exports of masks) and when they are doing it.
Data Provider: CoronaNet Research Project
Level/Frequency: Country-level data
Geographic Coverage: World
Time Range: December 2019 –
Availability: Free access online
Tracking Economic and Financial Policies During COVID-19: An Announcement-Level Database
The database tracks 5,500 unprecedented fiscal, monetary, prudential, and other policy measures adopted by 74 countries in 2020 in response to Covid-19. Advanced economies (AEs) enacted larger fiscal policies than emerging and developing economies (EMDEs), relying particularly on unconventional monetary interventions. Bank capital requirements were broadly eased in both AEs and EMs, with EMs relaxing provisioning requirements more frequently. Reporting requirements were widely relaxed.
Data Provider: International Monetary Fund (IMF)
Level/Frequency: Announcement-level data
Geographic Coverage: 74 countries
Time Range: 2020
Availability: Free access online
Where has it been used? Divya Kirti, Yang Liu, Soledad Martinez Peria, Prachi Mishra, and Jan Strasky (2022). IMF Working Paper No. 2022/114.