Household spending and fiscal support during the pandemic – the role of public perceptions

Dimitris Georgarakos and Geoff Kenny

Research Bulletin, 2022, vol. 94

Abstract: The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic shock posed an enormous challenge to fiscal policy in supporting household consumption. In this analysis, we report the results of a recent study (Georgarakos and Kenny, 2022) on the extent to which the pandemic-related fiscal interventions influenced consumers’ spending behaviour. The study finds that improving public perceptions about the adequacy of fiscal interventions incentivises spending. Importantly, this perceptions channel operates equally strongly for consumers who receive government support and for those who do not. Consumers who view the adequacy of fiscal packages more favourably also expect higher future incomes and easier access to credit, while they do not anticipate an increase in taxes. JEL Classification: D12, E12, H31

Keywords: Consumer Expectations Survey; COVID-19; Fiscal Policy; Household Spending; Public Perceptions (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022-04
Note: 483508
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.ecb.europa.eu//pub/economic-research/r ... 1~4c0d307af4.en.html (text/html)
https://www.ecb.europa.eu//pub/economic-research/r ... 21~4c0d307af4.en.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
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:ecb:ecbrbu:2022:0094:

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Research Bulletin from European Central Bank 60640 Frankfurt am Main, Germany. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Official Publications ().