Deshpande examined data from the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE)’s household surveys that collect weekly data from a rolling panel of roughly 11,000 households each week.
In all, roughly 40,000 households across the country are interviewed each month, and roughly 175,000 households each quarter on their work, income, and consumption patterns.Deshpande created a panel of individuals who were observed in all of the five most recent ‘waves’ - right from January 2019 to August 2020 - and for whom employment data are available, to be able to study the changes in the specific circumstances of households as they went through the pandemic.