External publication

Understanding the socioeconomic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on women

Testimony before the European Parliament's Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs (ECON) on the consequences of the pandemic on women.

Publishing date
27 October 2021

On 26 October 2021, Maria Demertzis, deputy Director of Bruegel, gave testimony to a public hearing of the European Parliament's Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs (ECON) on gender equality objectives in the resilience and recovery fund and the national recovery plans. 

The presentation, to help understand the socioeconomic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on women, was prepared with the research assistance of Mia Hoffmann.

Also giving testimony at the hearing were Paola Profeta, Full Professor in Public Economics (Bocconi University) and Ana Cordeiro Santos, Researcher in the Centre for Social Studies (University of Coimbra).

About the authors

  • Maria Demertzis

    Maria Demertzis is a Senior fellow at Bruegel and part-time Professor of Economic Policy at the Florence School of Transnational Governance at the European University Institute. She was Bruegel’s Deputy Director until December 2022. She has previously worked at the European Commission and the research department of the Dutch Central Bank. She has also held academic positions at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government in the USA and the University of Strathclyde in the UK, from where she holds a PhD in economics. She has published extensively in international academic journals and contributed regular policy inputs to both the European Commission's and the Dutch Central Bank's policy outlets. She contributes regularly to national and international press and has regular column that appears twice a month in various EU newspapers and on Bruegel’s opinion page.

  • Mia Hoffmann

    Mia worked at Bruegel as a Research Analyst until August 2022. She studied International Economics (BSc) at University of Tuebingen, including one semester at the Università di Torino, and holds a Master’s degree in Economics from Lund University.

    Before joining Bruegel Mia worked in the international development sector. As a Bluebook Trainee she worked at the European Commission’s Directorate-General for International Cooperation and Development and previously interned at the German development bank DEG, working on credit analysis and restructuring.

    Her previous research focused on the impact of migration on economic growth and analyzed the effects of childcare policy on household bargaining. Her current research interests involve issues related to trade, labor markets and inequality.

    Mia is a German native speaker, is fluent in English and has good working knowledge in French and Italian.

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