Will COVID-19 Have Long-Lasting Effects on Inequality? Evidence from Past Pandemics

Davide Furceri, Prakash Loungani, Jonathan Ostry and Pietro Pizzuto

No 2021/127, IMF Working Papers from International Monetary Fund

Abstract: This paper provides evidence on the impact of major epidemics from the past two decades on income distribution. The pandemics in our sample, even though much smaller in scale than COVID-19, have led to increases in the Gini coefficient, raised the income share of higher-income deciles, and lowered the employment-to-population ratio for those with basic education compared to those with higher education. We provide some evidence that the distributional consequences from the current pandemic may be larger than those flowing from the historical pandemics in our sample, and larger than those following typical recessions and financial crises.

Keywords: impact of pandemic; pandemic dummy regression; income share; pandemic event; severity of the pandemic; COVID-19; Income inequality; Income distribution; Income; Global (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 46
Date: 2021-05-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-his
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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Related works:
Journal Article: Will COVID-19 Have Long-Lasting Effects on Inequality? Evidence from Past Pandemics (2022)
Working Paper: Will COVID-19 Have Long-Lasting Effects on Inequality? Evidence from Past Pandemics (2021)
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