Initial Impacts of the Pandemic on Consumer Behavior: Evidence from Linked Income, Spending, and Savings Data

Bachas, Natalie; Ganong, Peter; Noel, Pascal; Vavra, Joseph; Wong, Arlene; Farrell, Diana; Greig, Fiona

doi:10.3386/w27617

Cited by 30 publications

(25 citation statements)

References 3 publications

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“…This impact is also evident in household-level bank-account data, as in Bachas et al (2020,) in weekly state-level data, as in Kobayashi et al (2020,) and in the aggregate, as verified by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (2020) analysis in April, which showed that aggregate income rose because of the policy interventions despite the output and consumption decline caused by the restriction measures.…”

Section: Stimulus Checksmentioning

confidence: 64%

Zoomshock: The Geography and Local Labour Market Consequences of Working from Home

2020

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Section: Stimulus Checksmentioning

confidence: 64%

Zoomshock: The Geography and Local Labour Market Consequences of Working from Home

2020

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“…Our findings contribute to a recent literature on the measurement of economic indicators in real-time, or at very high frequency. Most of the economic research on the impact of COVID-19 has concentrated on its effect on consumption [6,8,[15][16][17]. We present evidence on the impact of COVID-19 on economic inequality.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 84%

“…Recent research has also used bank account data to study the evolution of different macromagnitudes at very high frequency and, in particular, the effects of the pandemic on consumption [15][16][17]. Our contribution to this literature is threefold.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Tracking the impact of COVID-19 on economic inequality at high frequency

et al. 2021

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Pandemics have historically had a significant impact on economic inequality. However, official inequality statistics are only available at low frequency and with considerable delay, which challenges policymakers in their objective to mitigate inequality and fine-tune public policies. We show that using data from bank records it is possible to measure economic inequality at high frequency. The approach proposed in this paper allows measuring, timely and accurately, the impact on inequality of fast-unfolding crises, like the COVID-19 pandemic. Applying this approach to data from a representative sample of over three million residents of Spain we find that, absent government intervention, inequality would have increased by almost 30% in just one month. The granularity of the data allows analyzing with great detail the sources of the increases in inequality. In the Spanish case we find that it is primarily driven by job losses and wage cuts experienced by low-wage earners. Government support, in particular extended unemployment insurance and benefits for furloughed workers, were generally effective at mitigating the increase in inequality, though less so among young people and foreign-born workers. Therefore, our approach provides knowledge on the evolution of inequality at high frequency, the effectiveness of public policies in mitigating the increase of inequality and the subgroups of the population most affected by the changes in inequality. This information is fundamental to fine-tune public policies on the wake of a fast-moving pandemic like the COVID-19.

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“…Furthermore, these cuts were much larger than those that could be explained by the job and income losses occurring at the same time. 2 The drop in consumption regarded households' across the whole income distribution: Bachas et al (2020) and Chetty et al (2020) find that in the US rich individuals cut spending more aggressively and resumed it more slowly compared to low income individuals. This evidence suggests that the consumers' behaviour during the pandemic was affected not only by economic and precautionary motives but also by restrictive policies and infection concerns.…”

Section: Review Of the Literaturementioning

confidence: 99%

Consumption and Saving Patterns in Italy during Covid-19

Guglielminetti

Rondinelli

2021

SSRN Journal

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Following the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, household consumption fell dramatically and the propensity to save rose to unprecedented levels. In this paper we investigate the drivers of households' behaviour in Italy from a macro and microeconomic perspective. At the aggregate level, we find that only half of the slump in private consumption can be explained by the deterioration in economic conditions. The residual contribution can be traced back to other pandemic-related factors ̶ such as the fear of infection, the lockdown policies and increased uncertainty about the future ̶ whose relevance varies between expenditure categories. By complementing the macro analysis with microdata from the Bank of Italy's Special Survey of Italian Households, we find that, apart from any economic reasons, spending is held back more by fear of infection and uncertainty about the future than by the restrictive measures. Households where the head is self-employed are mainly discouraged by the fear of infection and uncertainty, whereas those where the head is unemployed are more concerned about their economic situation.

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Initial Impacts of the Pandemic on Consumer Behavior: Evidence from Linked Income, Spending, and Savings Data

Cited by 30 publications

References 3 publications

Zoomshock: The Geography and Local Labour Market Consequences of Working from Home

Zoomshock: The Geography and Local Labour Market Consequences of Working from Home

Tracking the impact of COVID-19 on economic inequality at high frequency

Consumption and Saving Patterns in Italy during Covid-19

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