Assessing concerns for the economic consequence of the COVID-19 response and mental health problems associated with economic vulnerability and negative economic shock in Italy, Spain, and the United Kingdom

Cristiano Codagnone, Francesco Bogliacino, Camilo Gómez Cangrejo, Rafael Charris, Felipe Montealegre (), Giovanni Liva, Francisco Lupiañez Villanueva, F. Folkvord and Giuseppe Alessandro Prof Veltri
Additional contact information
Giuseppe Alessandro Prof Veltri: University of Trento

No x9m36, SocArXiv from Center for Open Science

Abstract: Currently, many different countries are under lockdown or extreme social distancing measures to control the spread of COVID-19. The potentially far-reaching side effects of these measures have not yet been fully understood. In this study we analyse the results of a multi-country survey conducted in Italy (N=3,504), Spain (N=3,524) and the United Kingdom (N=3,523), with two separate analyses. In the first analysis, we examine the elicitation of citizens’ concerns over the downplaying of the economic consequences of the lockdown during the COVID-19 pandemic. We control for Social Desirability Bias through a list experiment included in the survey. In the second analysis, we examine the data from the same survey to estimate the consequences of the economic lockdown in terms of mental health, by predicting the level of stress, anxiety and depression associated with being economically vulnerable and having been affected by a negative economic shock. To accomplish this, we have used a prediction algorithm based on machine learning techniques. To quantify the size of this affected population, we compare its magnitude with the number of people affected by COVID-19 using measures of susceptibility, vulnerability and behavioural change collected in the same questionnaire. We find that the concern for the economy and for “the way out” of the lockdown is diffuse and there is evidence of minor underreporting. Additionally, we estimate that around 42.8% of the populations in the three countries are at high risk of stress, anxiety and depression, based on their level of economic vulnerability and their exposure to a negative economic shock. Therefore, it can be concluded that the lockdown and extreme social distancing in the three countries has had an enormous impact on individuals’ mental health and this should be taken into account for future decisions made on regulations concerning the pandemic.

Date: 2020-05-30
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-big and nep-cmp
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (20)

Downloads: (external link)
https://osf.io/download/5ed01cfdc7568602ea2d1ea3/

Related works:
Journal Article: Assessing concerns for the economic consequence of the COVID-19 response and mental health problems associated with economic vulnerability and negative economic shock in Italy, Spain, and the United Kingdom (2020)
Working Paper: Assessing concerns for the economic consequence of the COVID-19 response and mental health problems associated with economic vulnerability and negative economic shock in Italy, Spain, and the United Kingdom (2020)
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:osf:socarx:x9m36

DOI: 10.31219/osf.io/x9m36

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in SocArXiv from Center for Open Science
Bibliographic data for series maintained by OSF ().