Shaghayegh Hajivosough (Aalto University), "Long, Medium, and Short-Term Effects of COVID-19 on Mobility and Lifestyle”, co-written with André de Palma (THEMA, CY Cergy Paris University)

Abstract :
The outbreak of SARS-CoV-2 has led to the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020 and causes over 2 million deaths worldwide (by January 2021). Besides the public health crisis, the infection affected the global economy as well. It also led to change in people’s lifestyles, amount of teleworking and teleshopping, mode choice preference, the value of time, etc. In addition to these short-term changes during the COVID-19 outbreak, this drastic transformation of the world might account for the potentially disruptive medium- and long-term impacts. Recognizing the adverse effects of the COVID-19 pandemic is crucial in mitigating the negative behavioral changes that directly relate to psychological well-being. It is important to stress that citizens and government face an uncertain situation since nobody knows the exact parameters, which explain congestion or when the vaccine will be distributed (and its efficiency, for example, with respect to mutations). The major sources of uncertainty in the context of mobility, which have an impact on short-run (route, departure time, and mode used), medium-run (car ownership), and long-run (location of job, residential location, and choice of job) mobility, are mostly listed in this paper.