Irrational Consumption during the COVID-19 Period

Wenhuan Yu, Lin He, Xianhao Lin, Thomas Freudenreich and Tao Liu
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Wenhuan Yu: School of Management, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China
Lin He: School of Management, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China
Xianhao Lin: School of Health, Fujian Medical University, Fuzhou 350122, China
Thomas Freudenreich: School of Management, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China
Tao Liu: School of Health, Fujian Medical University, Fuzhou 350122, China

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 9, 1-13

Abstract: The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has severely impacted the world economy and has, most presumably, exerted a great deal of stress on citizens, in turn leading to the call for timely assessments of how this period might actually impact individuals at the level of everyday well-being and in their behaviors such as consumer decisions. Through one pilot study and two online survey studies, we tentatively investigated this latter question, and demonstrated that the COVID-19 pandemic may increase perceived stress and impair individuals’ sleep quality, which in turn impels their irrational consumption. This research provides preliminary evidence for the impact of the present pandemic on irrational consumption and contributes to the literature on stress and consumer behavior.

Keywords: COVID-19; irrational consumption; stress; sleep quality; negative emotion (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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