The COVID-19 pandemic is a global watershed event that has substantially scarred the social and economic fabric of societies and individuals alike. The road to recovery from this pandemic is likely to be a gradual and slow process that will have an unequal impact on different parts of society.
This proposed study sets out to identify, investigate, model and predict the factors associated with the objective and subjective well-being of the Israeli and French populations in the midst of the pandemic and in a world recovering from COVID-19.
The assessment considers both material (i.e., socio-economic status, income and wealth) and socio-psychological conditions (i.e., feelings of subjective well-being, depression levels, family tensions), as well as underlying societal factors (resilience, social cohesion, social capital, degree of trust etc.).
Special focus will be placed on the catalysts and agents, which differentially impacted vulnerable groups in society in the midst of the pandemic and on the factors that are projected to lead towards differential recovery.
The comparison between Israel and France is especially interesting in terms of the potential “winners” and “losers” from the pandemic.
An open question relates to both the contingent and structural elements of both societies and their ability to cope with the pandemic: France with its long-term stabilizers and social security system but slower epidemiological reaction or Israel with a less extended welfare system but with higher reactivity at the epidemiological level (a fast and effective vaccination campaign). The proposed project will employ a wide array of qualitative and quantitative tools for the collection and analysis of the research data. The French data will be based on the ELIPSS longitudinal survey, a probability-based panel.
Similar data will be collected for Israel via a specially tailored web survey. In addition to survey data, unobtrusive digital trace data will be collected from human sources and online tools (e.g., webpage visits analysis, social network discourse analysis etc.). An innovative effort will be made to triangulate these unobtrusive data sources with the panel data and qualitative interviews.
In order to test the relationship between socio-economic, behavioral and societal factors influencing the well-being and the coping abilities of the Israeli and French populations, mediation and moderation analysis will be implemented. The proposed bi-national project will equip stakeholders in both countries with well-established information that could help them in formulating guidelines for assisting vulnerable populations at times of crisis and speed up their recovery.
The research is funded by the Ministry of Science and Technology (Israel) and is carried out jointly with the Institut d’études politiques de Paris – Sciences Po.
