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The Impact of COVID-19 on Household Welfare in the Comoros: The Experience of a Small Island Developing State

In: The Coronavirus Pandemic and Inequality

Author

Listed:
  • Olive Umuhire Nsababera

    (The World Bank)

  • Vibhuti Mendiratta

    (International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD))

  • Hannah Sam

    (University of West London)

Abstract

This chapter investigates the impact of COVID-19 on the Comoros’s household welfare, poverty, and labor market outcomes. The lockdown policy coincided with data collection for the 2020 Harmonized Survey on Living Conditions of Households, lending itself to a quasi-natural experiment in which households that were interviewed before the lockdown fall into the control group, while those that were interviewed after the lockdown fall into the treated group. The chapter uses matching techniques and finds a reduction in household expenditure, increased poverty, and lower likelihood of employment. Impacts are larger at the top of the distribution suggesting COVID-19 may have reduced inequality, although the poor were also negatively affected. Additionally, the ability of households to use assets as a coping mechanism was limited. In a context of limited safety nets and government interventions, stringent lockdown policies appear to increase the vulnerability of the existing poor and push others into poverty.

Suggested Citation

  • Olive Umuhire Nsababera & Vibhuti Mendiratta & Hannah Sam, 2023. "The Impact of COVID-19 on Household Welfare in the Comoros: The Experience of a Small Island Developing State," Global Perspectives on Wealth and Distribution, in: Shirley Johnson-Lans (ed.), The Coronavirus Pandemic and Inequality, chapter 0, pages 141-195, Palgrave Macmillan.
    • Handle: RePEc:pal:gpochp:978-3-031-22219-1_7
    DOI: 10.1007/978-3-031-22219-1_7
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