IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/empeco/v65y2023i2d10.1007_s00181-022-02349-8.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The economic impact of the first wave of the pandemic on 50+ Europeans

Author

Listed:
  • Andrea Bonfatti

    (Padua University and Prometeia)

  • Greta Pesaresi

    (Padua University)

  • Guglielmo Weber

    (Padua University and IFS)

  • Nancy Zambon

    (Padua University)

Abstract

We analyse the effects of the first wave of the COVID-19 crisis on the economic situation of 50+ Europeans. We construct a financial distress indicator that captures experiencing an income loss, difficulties to make ends meet and the need to postpone payments. We find that education and income before the pandemic has a protective role, and so does being past retirement age. For households under retirement age, instead, the pandemic has exacerbated inequalities. We also investigate whether households report worse difficulties in making ends meet compared to the pre-COVID-19 period. We show that their ability to make ends meet worsens more with income losses during the pandemic compared to losses experienced in the two-year period before the pandemic.

Suggested Citation

  • Andrea Bonfatti & Greta Pesaresi & Guglielmo Weber & Nancy Zambon, 2023. "The economic impact of the first wave of the pandemic on 50+ Europeans," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 65(2), pages 607-659, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:empeco:v:65:y:2023:i:2:d:10.1007_s00181-022-02349-8
    DOI: 10.1007/s00181-022-02349-8
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s00181-022-02349-8
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s00181-022-02349-8?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Marta Fana & Sergio Torrejón Pérez & Enrique Fernández-Macías, 2020. "Employment impact of Covid-19 crisis: from short term effects to long terms prospects," Economia e Politica Industriale: Journal of Industrial and Business Economics, Springer;Associazione Amici di Economia e Politica Industriale, vol. 47(3), pages 391-410, September.
    2. David A. Benson & Mariacristina De Nardi & Eric French, 2012. "Consumption and the Great Recession," Economic Perspectives, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, vol. 36(Q I), pages 1-16.
    3. Bruce D. Meyer & James X. Sullivan, 2013. "Consumption and Income Inequality and the Great Recession," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 103(3), pages 178-183, May.
    4. Schenker, Nathaniel & Taylor, Jeremy M. G., 1996. "Partially parametric techniques for multiple imputation," Computational Statistics & Data Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 22(4), pages 425-446, August.
    5. Abi Adams-Prassl & Teodora Boneva & Marta Golin & Christopher Rauh, 2022. "The impact of the coronavirus lockdown on mental health: evidence from the United States," Economic Policy, CEPR, CESifo, Sciences Po;CES;MSH, vol. 37(109), pages 139-155.
    6. Ofer Harel, 2009. "The estimation of R2 and adjusted R2 in incomplete data sets using multiple imputation," Journal of Applied Statistics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 36(10), pages 1109-1118.
    7. Angus Deaton, 2021. "COVID-19 and Global Income Inequality," NBER Working Papers 28392, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Rémi Bazillier & Jérôme Hericourt, 2017. "The Circular Relationship Between Inequality, Leverage, And Financial Crises," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(2), pages 463-496, April.
    2. Manfred M. Fischer & Florian Huber & Michael Pfarrhofer, 2018. "The transmission of uncertainty shocks on income inequality: State-level evidence from the United States," Papers 1806.08278, arXiv.org.
    3. Timm Bönke & Markus M. Grabka & Carsten Schröder & Edward N. Wolff & Lennard Zyska, 2019. "The Joint Distribution of Net Worth and Pension Wealth in Germany," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 65(4), pages 834-871, December.
    4. Sam Norris & Krishna Pendakur, 2015. "Consumption inequality in Canada, 1997 to 2009," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 48(2), pages 773-792, May.
    5. Sule Alan & Thomas Crossley & Hamish Low, 2012. "Saving on a Rainy Day, Borrowing for a Rainy Day," Koç University-TUSIAD Economic Research Forum Working Papers 1212, Koc University-TUSIAD Economic Research Forum.
    6. Xinhua Gu & Yang Zhang & Xiao Chang, 2017. "The role of financial systems for cross-country differences in the link between income and consumption inequality," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 49(24), pages 2365-2378, May.
    7. Sebastian Devlin-Foltz & John Edward Sabelhaus, 2015. "Heterogeneity in Economic Shocks and Household Spending," Finance and Economics Discussion Series 2015-49, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).
    8. Carlos Díaz & Sebastian Fossati & Nicolás Trajtenberg, 2022. "Stay at home if you can: COVID‐19 stay‐at‐home guidelines and local crime," Journal of Empirical Legal Studies, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 19(4), pages 1067-1113, December.
    9. Jonathan Heathcote & Fabrizio Perri, 2018. "Wealth and Volatility," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 85(4), pages 2173-2213.
    10. Lichner, Ivan & Lyócsa, Štefan & Výrostová, Eva, 2022. "Nominal and discretionary household income convergence: The effect of a crisis in a small open economy," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 18-31.
    11. Moritz Kuhn & Moritz Schularick & Ulrike I. Steins, 2020. "Income and Wealth Inequality in America, 1949–2016," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 128(9), pages 3469-3519.
    12. Gervásio Ferreira dos Santos & Luiz Carlos de Santana Ribeiro & Rodrigo Barbosa de Cerqueira, 2020. "The informal sector and Covid‐19 economic impacts: The case of Bahia, Brazil," Regional Science Policy & Practice, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 12(6), pages 1273-1285, December.
    13. Oyenubi, Adeola & Kollamparambil, Umakrishnan, 2023. "Does noncompliance with COVID-19 regulations impact the depressive symptoms of others?," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 120(C).
    14. Sirola, Nina, 2023. "Going beyond the call of duty under conditions of economic threat: Integrating life history and temporal dilemma perspectives," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 179(C).
    15. Li, Jiayi & Luo, Sumei & Zhou, Guangyou, 2023. "Electronic payment, natural environment and household consumption: Evidence from China household finance survey," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 85(C).
    16. Stark, Oded, 2021. "Why reducing relative deprivation but not reducing income inequality might bring down COVID-19 infections," Journal of Government and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 4(C).
    17. repec:fip:fedhep:y:2013:i:qi:p:14-29:n:vol.37no.1 is not listed on IDEAS
    18. Alina K. Bartscher & Moritz Kuhn & Moritz Schularick, 2020. "The College Wealth Divide: Education and Inequality in America, 1956-2016," Review, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, vol. 102(1), pages 19-49.
    19. Shane S. Dikolli & John C. Heater & William J. Mayew & Mani Sethuraman, 2021. "Chief Financial Officer Co-option and Chief Executive Officer Compensation," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 67(3), pages 1939-1955, March.
    20. Jonathan Fisher & Bradley L. Hardy, 2023. "Money matters: consumption variability across the income distribution," Fiscal Studies, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 44(3), pages 275-298, September.
    21. Muinelo-Gallo, Leonel, 2022. "Business cycles and redistribution: The role of government quality," Economic Systems, Elsevier, vol. 46(4).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    COVID-19; SHARE; Financial distress; Household economic conditions;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D31 - Microeconomics - - Distribution - - - Personal Income and Wealth Distribution
    • I32 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - Measurement and Analysis of Poverty

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:empeco:v:65:y:2023:i:2:d:10.1007_s00181-022-02349-8. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.