IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ebl/ecbull/eb-24-00394.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The impact of COVID-19 on economic insecurity of young europeans: exploring the role of local institutions

Author

Listed:
  • Gianluca Cerruti

    (University of Genova)

Abstract

In this paper, I examine the role of local institutions on economic insecurity among young Europeans in the wake of the pandemic. To do so, I exploit a survey of young adults residing in Italy, Germany, France, and Spain. The analysis, using a difference-in-differences estimation strategy, shows how the quality of local institutions acted as a mediating factor in the evolution of individuals' economic insecurity after the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. Estimates evidence a lower level of economic insecurity of about 10.3% in regions with high-quality institutions (75th percentile) compared to regions with low-quality institutions (25th percentile). Furthermore, nearly two years of post-COVID-19 data confirm that the effect was not only temporary. Overall, the quality of local institutions - by inhibiting the rise in perceived economic insecurity among young individuals - is likely to have mitigated consequent negative economic effects.

Suggested Citation

  • Gianluca Cerruti, 2025. "The impact of COVID-19 on economic insecurity of young europeans: exploring the role of local institutions," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 45(1), pages 100-110.
    • Handle: RePEc:ebl:ecbull:eb-24-00394
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.accessecon.com/Pubs/EB/2025/Volume45/EB-25-V45-I1-P10.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Rohde, Nicholas & Tang, Kam Ki & Osberg, Lars & Rao, D.S. Prasada, 2017. "Is it vulnerability or economic insecurity that matters for health?," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 134(C), pages 307-319.
    2. Barry Eichengreen & Orkun Saka & Cevat Giray Aksoy, 2024. "The Political Scar of Epidemics," The Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 134(660), pages 1683-1700.
    3. Walter Bossert & Conchita D'Ambrosio, 2013. "Measuring Economic Insecurity," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 54, pages 1017-1030, August.
    4. Joshua D. Angrist & Jörn-Steffen Pischke, 2009. "Mostly Harmless Econometrics: An Empiricist's Companion," Economics Books, Princeton University Press, edition 1, number 8769.
    5. Goodman-Bacon, Andrew & Marcus, Jan, 2020. "Using Difference-in-Differences to Identify Causal Effects of COVID-19 Policies," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 14(2), pages 153-158.
    6. L. Guiso & H. Herrera & M. Morelli & T. Sonno, 2024. "Economic insecurity and the demand for populism in Europe," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 91(362), pages 588-620, April.
    7. repec:osf:socarx:p25nh_v1 is not listed on IDEAS
    8. repec:zbw:bofitp:2020_014 is not listed on IDEAS
    9. Charron, Nicholas & Lapuente, Víctor & Bauhr, Monika & Annoni, Paola, 2022. "Change and Continuity in Quality of Government: Trends in subnational quality of government in EU member states," INVESTIGACIONES REGIONALES - Journal of REGIONAL RESEARCH, Asociación Española de Ciencia Regional, issue 53, pages 5-23.
    10. Aksoy, Cevat Giray & Eichengreen, Barry & Saka, Orkun, 2020. "The Political Scar of Epidemics," IZA Discussion Papers 13351, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    11. Walter Bossert & Conchita D'Ambrosio, 2013. "Measuring Economic Insecurity," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 54(3), pages 1017-1030, August.
    12. Ronald Bachmann & Myrielle Gonschor & Thorben Korfhage & Ansgar Wübker, 2023. "Covid-19 and life satisfaction across Europe," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 30(5), pages 635-639, March.
    13. Watson, Barry & Daley, Angela & Rohde, Nicholas & Osberg, Lars, 2020. "Blown off-course? Weight gain among the economically insecure during the great recession," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 80(C).
    14. Roberto Ezcurra & Vicente Rios, 2019. "Quality of government and regional resilience in the European Union. Evidence from the Great Recession," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 98(3), pages 1267-1290, June.
    15. Nicholas Charron & Lewis Dijkstra & Victor Lapuente, 2014. "Regional Governance Matters: Quality of Government within European Union Member States," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 48(1), pages 68-90, January.
    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. Rohde, Nicholas & Tang, Kam Ki & D’Ambrosio, Conchita & Osberg, Lars & Rao, Prasada, 2020. "Welfare-based income insecurity in the us and germany: evidence from harmonized panel data," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 176(C), pages 226-243.
    2. Alessandro Gallo & Silvia Pacei & Maria Rosaria Ferrante, 2024. "A Composite Inter-Temporal Economic Insecurity Index," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 175(2), pages 517-543, November.
    3. Roberto Ezcurra, 2024. "Kin networks and quality of government: a regional analysis," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 73(4), pages 2117-2142, December.
    4. Filip, Marinela-Daniela & Setzer, Ralph, 2025. "The impact of regional institutional quality on economic growth and resilience in the EU," Working Paper Series 3045, European Central Bank.
    5. Maite Blázquez & Ana I. Moro Egido, 2020. "Financial insecurity and subjective well-being. Europe in crossnational perspective," ThE Papers 20/07, Department of Economic Theory and Economic History of the University of Granada..
    6. Conchita D’Ambrosio & Andrew E. Clark & Rémi Yin, 2023. "Economic Insecurity and Health," Hacienda Pública Española / Review of Public Economics, IEF, vol. 247(4), pages 69-89, December.
    7. Rohde, Nicholas, 2023. "Economic insecurity, nativism, and the erosion of institutional trust," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 212(C), pages 1017-1028.
    8. Alessandro Belmonte & Harry Pickard, 2024. "Safe at Last? Late Effects of a Mass Immunization Campaign on Households' Economic Insecurity," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 70(2), pages 466-497, June.
    9. Belmonte, A & Pickard, H, 2022. "Safe at Last? LATE Effects of a Mass Immunization Campaign on Households’ Economic Insecurity," CAGE Online Working Paper Series 604, Competitive Advantage in the Global Economy (CAGE).
    10. Wright, Austin L. & Sonin, Konstantin & Driscoll, Jesse & Wilson, Jarnickae, 2020. "Poverty and economic dislocation reduce compliance with COVID-19 shelter-in-place protocols," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 180(C), pages 544-554.
    11. Vinko Muštra & Blanka Šimundić & Zvonimir Kuliš, 2020. "Does innovation matter for regional labour resilience? The case of EU regions," Regional Science Policy & Practice, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 12(5), pages 955-970, October.
    12. Jonathan Muringani & Rune Dahl Fitjar & Andrés Rodríguez-Pose, 2024. "Political trust and economic development in European regions," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 73(4), pages 2059-2089, December.
    13. Eichengreen, Barry & Aksoy, Cevat Giray & Saka, Orkun, 2021. "Revenge of the experts: Will COVID-19 renew or diminish public trust in science?," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 193(C).
    14. Ntentas, Raphael, 2021. "Quantifying political populism and examining the link with economic insecurity: evidence from Greece," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 112579, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    15. Walter Bossert & Andrew E Clark & Conchita D’Ambrosio & Anthony Lepinteur, 2023. "Economic insecurity and political preferences," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 75(3), pages 802-825.
    16. Bachtrögler, Julia & Oberhofer, Harald, 2018. "Euroscepticism and EU Cohesion Policy: The Impact of Micro-Level Policy Effectiveness on Voting Behavior," Department of Economics Working Paper Series 273, WU Vienna University of Economics and Business.
    17. Raphael Ntentas, 2021. "Quantifying Political Populism and Examining the Link with Economic Insecurity: evidence from Greece," GreeSE – Hellenic Observatory Papers on Greece and Southeast Europe 165, Hellenic Observatory, LSE.
    18. Rios, Vicente & Barba, Izaskun & Gianmoena, Lisa & Pascual, Pedro, 2024. "Clearing the smog ceiling: The impact of women’s political empowerment on air quality in European regions," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 85(C).
    19. Lars Osberg & Andrew Sharpe, 2014. "Measuring Economic Insecurity in Rich and Poor Nations," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 60(S1), pages 53-76, May.
    20. Rios, Vicente & Gianmoena, Lisa, 2020. "The link between quality of government and regional resilience in Europe," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 42(5), pages 1064-1084.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    COVID-19; Economic Insecurity; Young adults; Institutions.;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • R5 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Regional Government Analysis
    • R1 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - General Regional Economics

    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:ebl:ecbull:eb-24-00394. 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: John P. Conley (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    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.