Financial Fragility during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Robert L. Clark, Annamaria Lusardi () and Olivia Mitchell

AEA Papers and Proceedings, 2021, vol. 111, 292-96

Abstract: Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, much of the US economy was closed to limit the virus's spread, and several emergency interventions were implemented. Our analysis of older (45–75) respondents fielded in April–May of 2020 indicates that about 1 in 5 respondents was financially fragile and would have difficulty facing a midsize emergency expense. Some subgroups were at particular risk of facing financial difficulties, especially younger respondents, those with larger families, Hispanics, and those with low income. Moreover, the more financially literate were better able to handle such shocks, indicating that knowledge can provide some additional protection during a pandemic.

JEL-codes: G51 I12 I18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (12)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.aeaweb.org/doi/10.1257/pandp.20211000 (application/pdf)
https://www.aeaweb.org/doi/10.1257/pandp.20211000.appx (application/pdf)
https://www.aeaweb.org/doi/10.1257/pandp.20211000.ds (application/zip)
Access to full text is restricted to AEA members and institutional subscribers.

Related works:
Working Paper: Financial Fragility during the COVID-19 Pandemic (2020)
Working Paper: Financial Fragility during the COVID-19 Pandemic (2020)
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:aea:apandp:v:111:y:2021:p:292-96

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.aeaweb.org/subscribe.html

DOI: 10.1257/pandp.20211000

Access Statistics for this article

AEA Papers and Proceedings is currently edited by William Johnson and Kelly Markel

More articles in AEA Papers and Proceedings from American Economic Association Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Michael P. Albert ().