Social Restrictions and Well-Being: Disentangling the Mechanisms

Francesca Foliano, Valentina Tonei () and Almudena Sevilla ()
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Valentina Tonei: University of Southampton
Almudena Sevilla: London School of Economics

No 15734, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: Using a nationally representative 24-hour diary survey covering the first two years of the pandemic, we explore the mechanisms underlying the changes in wellbeing for men and women. We exploit the variation in the stringency of social restrictions implemented by the UK government during this period and use an event-study methodology to net out the impact of social restrictions from other pandemic effects. We find that well-being dropped by 47% (men) and 70% (women) of a standard deviation during the strictest lockdown, and this effect survives after accounting for financial conditions and changes in local infection and death rates. Our data on time allocation and individual preferences over the activities undertaken throughout the day reveal that the drop in well-being is primarily driven by a drastic reduction in time spent in leisure with non-household members or outside the home.

Keywords: well-being; social isolation; time use; instantaneous enjoyment; COVID-19 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I10 I14 I18 I30 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 32 pages
Date: 2022-11
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-eur and nep-hap
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