Eli Fenichel, Ph.D.
Knobloch Family Professor of Natural Resource Economics
School of the Environment
Professor Fenichel's research uses Census products like the Current Population Survey (CPS) and the American Time Use Survey (ATUS) that have been invaluable in understanding the structure of American households and how people respond to environmental risks, including risks from infectious diseases like H1N1, Lyme Disease, and COVID-19.
Fenichel states, "The CPS lets us understand the correlation between employment type and children in the household. One could speculate why healthcare workers have greater child care obligations than the general public, but the fact remains. This helped us understand what happens to the healthcare labor force if schools close and what that healthcare labor effect could be on COVID-19 treatment."
The ATUS dataset is a long-run record of how Americans spend their time. Many of the most important things is how we spend our leisure time. This makes the ATUS data set great for looking at how Americans change their behavior as the environment changes. Fenichel has used it to look at the response to H1N1 and to Lyme Disease.