Distributional effects of COVID-19 on spending: A first look at the evidence from Spain

José Garcia Montalvo () and Marta Reynal-Querol ()
Additional contact information
José Garcia Montalvo: https://www.upf.edu/web/econ/faculty/-/asset_publisher/6aWmmXf28uXT/persona/id/3418887
Marta Reynal-Querol: https://www.upf.edu/web/econ/faculty/-/asset_publisher/6aWmmXf28uXT/persona/id/3418663

Economics Working Papers from Department of Economics and Business, Universitat Pompeu Fabra

Abstract: We use data from a a large Spanish personal finance management fintech to have a first look at the heterogeneous effects of the COVID-19 on spending. We show a large reduction on spending since mid-March, coinciding with the shutdown of the economy and the strict confinement of population. Since the end of April the is a recovery of spending although, by the end of June, it is still 20% below the level of the previous year. Opposite to what has been observed in other countries, the recovery of spending is not more intense in low-income families than in their high-income counterparts. However, there is some evidence of differences in the intensity of rebound by age and account balance. This suggest differences in the intensity of government benefits for low-income families and financial difficulties for low-liquidity families.

Keywords: spending; income; liquidity; COVID-19; administrative data; high frequency (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: E21 E62 E65 H31 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020-09
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-mac and nep-pub
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Downloads: (external link)
https://econ-papers.upf.edu/papers/1740.pdf Whole Paper (application/pdf)

Related works:
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:upf:upfgen:1740

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Economics Working Papers from Department of Economics and Business, Universitat Pompeu Fabra
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ( this e-mail address is bad, please contact ).