The Gendered Effects of COVID-19 on Well-being: A Household Perspective

We investigate the causal effect of COVID-19 incidence rates on changes in subjective well-being. Specifically, we employ a household-level perspective and expect that household composition (i.e., single and multi-person households and caregiving duties for children or older adults) and affluence (i.e., housing quality and financial resources) moderate the effect of COVID-19 incidence rates, with a special focus on gender differences. Employing longitudinal household data from the Panel Labour Market and Social Security (PASS) and a difference-in-difference (DiD) approach, we find an overall negative effect. This effect is stronger for individuals with caregiving responsibilities. In contrast to our theoretical expectations, our results indicate stronger negative effects on individuals from households with high living standards and high financial resources. Strikingly, our findings indicate that the relevant negative subjective well-being changes are concentrated among women with caregiving obligations. Overall, our study underscores the need for further sociological research based on strong methodological designs.