The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the poor: Insights from the Hrishipara diaries.

We examine the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the livelihoods of the poor in a semi-rural setting in Bangladesh. We use an unusually rich dataset which tracks the economic and financial transactions of sixty poor and very poor individuals and their families on a real-time basis for 12 months, from 1 October 2019 to 30 September 2020. These households for the past five years have volunteered as respondents in a 'financial diaries' study known as the 'Hrishipara Daily Diaries Project'.