The Heterogeneous and Regressive Consequences of COVID-19: Evidence from High Quality Panel Data

Hamish Low, Thomas Crossley () and Paul Fisher

No 919, Economics Series Working Papers from University of Oxford, Department of Economics

Abstract: Using new data from the Understanding Society COVID-19 Study collected in two waves in April and in May 2020 in the UK, we make three contributions. First, Understanding Society is based on probability samples and the Covid-19 Study is carefully constructed to support valid population inferences. Second, the panel allows a long-run measure of income to characterise regressivity. Third, we have novel data on the mitigation strategies that households use. Our key findings are that those with precarious employment, under 30 and from minority ethnic groups face the biggest labour market shocks. Almost 50% of individuals have experienced declines in household earnings of at least 10%, but declines are most severe in the bottom income quintiles. Methods of mitigation vary substantially across groups: borrowing and transfers from family and friends are most prevalent among those most in need.

Keywords: COVID-19; job loss; inequality; mitigation; financial distress (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C83 D31 J63 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020-09-29
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-eur
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (8)

Downloads: (external link)
https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:d15bfb47-c6ee-443e-9e3e-297cfccc6ccd (text/html)

Related works:
Journal Article: The heterogeneous and regressive consequences of COVID-19: Evidence from high quality panel data (2021)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:oxf:wpaper:919

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Economics Series Working Papers from University of Oxford, Department of Economics Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Anne Pouliquen ( this e-mail address is bad, please contact ).