IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/plo/pone00/0240500.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Concerns and adjustments: How the Portuguese population met COVID-19

Author

Listed:
  • Sara Valente de Almeida
  • Eduardo Costa
  • Francisca Vargas Lopes
  • João Vasco Santos
  • Pedro Pita Barros

Abstract

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has led to disruptive changes worldwide, with different implications across countries. The evolution of citizens’ concerns and behaviours over time is a central piece to support public policies. Objective: To unveil perceptions and behaviours of the Portuguese population regarding social and economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, allowing for more informed public policies. Methods: Online panel survey distributed in three waves between March 13th and May 6th 2020. Data collected from a non-representative sample of 7,448 respondents includes socio-demographic characteristics and self-reported measures on levels of concern and behaviours related to COVID-19. We performed descriptive analysis and probit regressions to understand relationships between the different variables. Results: Most participants (85%) report being at least very concerned with the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic and social isolation reached a high level of adherence during the state of emergency. Around 36% of the sample anticipated consumption decisions, stockpiling ahead of the state of emergency declaration. Medical appointments suffered severe consequences, being re-rescheduled or cancelled. We find important variation in concerns with the economic impact across activity sectors. Conclusion: We show that high level of concern and behaviour adaptation in our sample preceded the implementation of lockdown measures in Portugal around mid-March. One month later, a large share of individuals had suffered disruption in their routine health care and negative impacts in their financial status.

Suggested Citation

  • Sara Valente de Almeida & Eduardo Costa & Francisca Vargas Lopes & João Vasco Santos & Pedro Pita Barros, 2020. "Concerns and adjustments: How the Portuguese population met COVID-19," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(10), pages 1-17, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0240500
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0240500
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0240500
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0240500&type=printable
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1371/journal.pone.0240500?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
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Carola Binder, 2020. "Coronavirus Fears and Macroeconomic Expectations," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 102(4), pages 721-730, October.
    2. Thiemo Fetzer & Lukas Hensel & Johannes Hermle & Christopher Roth, 2021. "Coronavirus Perceptions and Economic Anxiety," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 103(5), pages 968–978-9, December.
    3. Scott R. Baker & Nicholas Bloom & Steven J. Davis & Kyle J. Kost & Marco C. Sammon & Tasaneeya Viratyosin, 2020. "The Unprecedented Stock Market Impact of COVID-19," NBER Working Papers 26945, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. Sadorsky, Perry, 2012. "Information communication technology and electricity consumption in emerging economies," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 130-136.
    5. Sabat, Iryna & Neuman-Böhme, Sebastian & Varghese, Nirosha Elsem & Barros, Pedro Pita & Brouwer, Werner & van Exel, Job & Schreyögg, Jonas & Stargardt, Tom, 2020. "United but divided: Policy responses and people’s perceptions in the EU during the COVID-19 outbreak," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 124(9), pages 909-918.
    6. Wim Verbeke & Ronald W. Ward & Jacques Viaene, 2000. "Probit analysis of fresh meat consumption in Belgium: Exploring BSE and television communication impact," Agribusiness, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 16(2), pages 215-234.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Bruno Pires & Hermínia Gonçalves, 2022. "Transformative Processes of Gerontological Responses in Different Models of Public Providentialism in the COVID-19 Context: A Bibliometric Review," Societies, MDPI, vol. 12(5), pages 1-15, October.
    2. Kelly Cosgrove & Maricarmen Vizcaino & Christopher Wharton, 2021. "COVID-19-Related Changes in Perceived Household Food Waste in the United States: A Cross-Sectional Descriptive Study," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(3), pages 1-11, January.
    3. Daniela Azevedo & Ana Isabel Plácido & Maria Teresa Herdeiro & Fátima Roque & Vítor Roque, 2022. "How Portuguese Health Entities Used Social Media to Face the Public Health Emergency during COVID-19 Disease," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(19), pages 1-13, September.

    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. Kizys, Renatas & Tzouvanas, Panagiotis & Donadelli, Michael, 2021. "From COVID-19 herd immunity to investor herding in international stock markets: The role of government and regulatory restrictions," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).
    2. van der Wielen, Wouter & Barrios, Salvador, 2021. "Economic sentiment during the COVID pandemic: Evidence from search behaviour in the EU," Journal of Economics and Business, Elsevier, vol. 115(C).
    3. Miescu, Mirela & Rossi, Raffaele, 2021. "COVID-19-induced shocks and uncertainty," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 139(C).
    4. Ingar Haaland & Christopher Roth & Johannes Wohlfart, 2023. "Designing Information Provision Experiments," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 61(1), pages 3-40, March.
    5. Dräger, Lena & Bui, Dzung & Nghiem, Giang & Hayo, Bernd, 2021. "Consumer Sentiment During the COVID-19 Pandemic," VfS Annual Conference 2021 (Virtual Conference): Climate Economics 242375, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    6. Al Rababa'a, Abdel Razzaq & Alomari, Mohammad & Mensi, Walid & Matar, Ali & Saidat, Zaid, 2021. "Does tracking the infectious diseases impact the gold, oil and US dollar returns and correlation? A quantile regression approach," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).
    7. Hamza Umer, 2023. "Stability of pro-sociality and trust amid the Covid-19: panel data from the Netherlands," Empirica, Springer;Austrian Institute for Economic Research;Austrian Economic Association, vol. 50(1), pages 255-287, February.
    8. Jesper Akesson & Sam Ashworth-Hayes & Robert Hahn & Robert Metcalfe & Itzhak Rasooly, 2022. "Fatalism, beliefs, and behaviors during the COVID-19 pandemic," Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, Springer, vol. 64(2), pages 147-190, April.
    9. Dzung Bui & Lena Draeger & Bernd Hayo & Giang NghiemŸ, 2020. "Consumer Sentiment During the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Role of Others' Beliefs," MAGKS Papers on Economics 202049, Philipps-Universität Marburg, Faculty of Business Administration and Economics, Department of Economics (Volkswirtschaftliche Abteilung).
    10. Brodeur, Abel & Cook, Nikolai & Wright, Taylor, 2021. "On the effects of COVID-19 safer-at-home policies on social distancing, car crashes and pollution," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 106(C).
    11. Keyang Li & Yu Qin & Jing Wu & Jubo Yan, 2023. "Perceived economic prospects during the early stage of COVID‐19 breakout," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 41(4), pages 696-713, October.
    12. Christopher Roth & Sonja Settele & Johannes Wohlfart, 2022. "Risk Exposure and Acquisition of Macroeconomic Information," American Economic Review: Insights, American Economic Association, vol. 4(1), pages 34-53, March.
    13. Ambrocio, Gene & Juselius, Mikael, 2020. "Dealing with the costs of the COVID-19 pandemic – what are the fiscal options?," BoF Economics Review 2/2020, Bank of Finland.
    14. Rees-Jones, Alex & D’Attoma, John & Piolatto, Amedeo & Salvadori, Luca, 2022. "Experience of the COVID-19 pandemic and support for safety-net expansion," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 200(C), pages 1090-1104.
    15. Feng, Gen-Fu & Yang, Hao-Chang & Gong, Qiang & Chang, Chun-Ping, 2021. "What is the exchange rate volatility response to COVID-19 and government interventions?," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 705-719.
    16. Rafkin, Charlie & Shreekumar, Advik & Vautrey, Pierre-Luc, 2021. "When guidance changes: Government stances and public beliefs," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 196(C).
    17. Cato, Misina & Schmidt, Tobias, 2023. "Households' expectations and regional COVID-19 dynamics," Discussion Papers 02/2023, Deutsche Bundesbank.
    18. Ambrocio, Gene & Hasan, Iftekhar, 2022. "Belief polarization and Covid-19," Bank of Finland Research Discussion Papers 10/2022, Bank of Finland.
    19. Dietrich, Alexander M. & Kuester, Keith & Müller, Gernot J. & Schoenle, Raphael, 2022. "News and uncertainty about COVID-19: Survey evidence and short-run economic impact," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 129(S), pages 35-51.
    20. Lukas Menkhoff & Carsten Schröder, 2022. "Risky Asset Holdings During Covid‐19 and their Distributional Impact: Evidence from Germany," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 68(2), pages 497-517, June.

    More about this item

    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:plo:pone00:0240500. 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: plosone (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/ .

    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.