The Distributional Impact of the Pandemic

Hacioglu Sinem (), Diego Känzig and Paolo Surico
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Hacioglu Sinem: Bank of England - Bank of England, King‘s College London
Authors registered in the RePEc Author Service: Sinem Hacıoğlu Hoke

World Inequality Lab Working Papers from HAL

Abstract: The top quartile of the income distribution accounts for almost half of the pandemic-related decline in aggregate consumption, with expenditure for this group falling much more than income. In contrast, the bottom quartile of the income distribution has seen the smallest spending cuts and the largest earnings drop but their total incomes have fallen by much less because of the increase in government benefits. The decline in consumers' spending preceded the introduction of the lockdown, whose partial lifting has triggered a stronger recovery in sectors with a lower contact rate. The largest spending contractions are concentrated in the most affluent regions. These conclusions are based on detailed high-frequency transaction data on spending, earnings and income from a large fintech company in the United Kingdom.

Keywords: spending; earnings; income; benefits; heterogeneity; pandemic (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020-11
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-pay and nep-pub
Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://shs.hal.science/halshs-03028702v1
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (17)

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Related works:
Journal Article: The distributional impact of the pandemic (2021)
Working Paper: The Distributional Impact of the Pandemic (2020)
Working Paper: The Distributional Impact of the Pandemic (2020)
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