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Consumption Spending during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Author

Listed:
  • Christopher D. Cotton
  • Vaishali Garga
  • Justin Rohan

Abstract

We use a novel empirical approach to decompose the impact of different economic, demographic, and COVID-19–related factors (such as lockdowns, case counts, and vaccination rates) on consumption spending on a week-by-week basis during the pandemic. This allows us to study how demographic and economic groups were differentially affected by the pandemic while crucially controlling for other factors. Our results imply that Hispanic and college-educated populations showed particularly large and persistent declines in relative spending. We also compute the relative importance of factors in driving consumption spending differences. We find that spending differences were persistently driven by political affiliation, age, education, and COVID factors. At a more disaggregated level of spending, political affiliation and COVID factors had a much stronger and more persistent impact on spending that was social-distancing sensitive (SDS), such as travel and restaurant dining, than on non-SDS spending.

Suggested Citation

  • Christopher D. Cotton & Vaishali Garga & Justin Rohan, 2021. "Consumption Spending during the COVID-19 Pandemic," Current Policy Perspectives 93430, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston.
    • Handle: RePEc:fip:fedbcq:93430
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
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    3. Goolsbee, Austan & Syverson, Chad, 2021. "Fear, lockdown, and diversion: Comparing drivers of pandemic economic decline 2020," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 193(C).
    4. Natalie Cox & Peter Ganong & Pascal Noel & Joseph Vavra & Arlene Wong & Diana Farrell & Fiona Greig & Erica Deadman, 2020. "Initial Impacts of the Pandemic on Consumer Behavior: Evidence from Linked Income, Spending, and Savings Data," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 51(2 (Summer), pages 35-82.
    5. John Manuel Barrios & Yael V. Hochberg, 2020. "Risk Perception Through the Lens of Politics in the Time of the COVID-19 Pandemic," Working Papers 2020-32, Becker Friedman Institute for Research In Economics.
    6. Couch, Kenneth A. & Fairlie, Robert W. & Xu, Huanan, 2020. "Early evidence of the impacts of COVID-19 on minority unemployment," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 192(C).
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    consumption; inequality; COVID-19; economic factors; demographic factors;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • E21 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Consumption; Saving; Wealth
    • E32 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Prices, Business Fluctuations, and Cycles - - - Business Fluctuations; Cycles
    • E62 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Macroeconomic Policy, Macroeconomic Aspects of Public Finance, and General Outlook - - - Fiscal Policy; Modern Monetary Theory

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