IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/idb/brikps/10582.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The Unequal Impact of the Coronavirus Pandemic: Evidence from Seventeen Developing Countries

Author

Listed:
  • Bottan, Nicolas L.
  • Hoffmann, Bridget
  • Vera-Cossio, Diego A.

Abstract

The current coronavirus pandemic is an unprecedented public health challenge that has devastating economic impacts for households. Using a sample of 230,540 respondents to online surveys in 17 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, we show that the economic impacts are large and unequal: 45% of respondents report that a household member lost a job, and among households owning small businesses, 59% of respondents report that a household member closed their business. Among households with the lowest income prior to the pandemic, 71% report that a household member lost their job and 61% report that a household member closed their business. Declines in food security and healthiness are among the disproportionate impacts. Our results provide evidence that the current public health crisis will exacerbate economic inequality, and they are among the rst estimates of the labor market and wellbeing impacts of the pandemic in developing countries.

Suggested Citation

  • Bottan, Nicolas L. & Hoffmann, Bridget & Vera-Cossio, Diego A., 2020. "The Unequal Impact of the Coronavirus Pandemic: Evidence from Seventeen Developing Countries," IDB Publications (Working Papers) 10582, Inter-American Development Bank.
    • Handle: RePEc:idb:brikps:10582
    DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.18235/0002451
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://publications.iadb.org/publications/english/document/The-Unequal-Impact-of-the-Coronavirus-Pandemic-Evidence-from-Seventeen-Developing-Countries.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/http://dx.doi.org/10.18235/0002451?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
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Thiemo R. Fetzer & Marc Witte & Lukas Hensel & Jon Jachimowicz & Johannes Haushofer & Andriy Ivchenko & Stefano Caria & Elena Reutskaja & Christopher P. Roth & Stefano Fiorin & Margarita Gómez & Gordo, 2020. "Global Behaviors and Perceptions at the Onset of the COVID-19 Pandemic," NBER Working Papers 27082, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Fetzer, Thiemo & Witte, Marc & Hensel, Lukas & Jachimowicz, Jon M. & Haushofer, Johannes & Ivchenko, Andriy & Reutskaja, Elena & Roth, Christopher & Gomez, Margarita & Kraft-Todd, Gordon & Goetz, Frie, 2020. "Global Behaviors and Perceptions in the COVID-19 Pandemic," CEPR Discussion Papers 14631, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    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. Ester Faia & Andreas Fuster & Vincenzo Pezone & Basit Zafar, 2024. "Biases in Information Selection and Processing: Survey Evidence from the Pandemic," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 106(3), pages 829-847, May.
    2. Belot, Michèle & Choi, Syngjoo & Jamison, Julian C. & Papageorge, Nicholas W. & Tripodi, Egon & van den Broek-Altenburg, Eline, 2020. "Six-Country Survey on COVID-19," IZA Discussion Papers 13230, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    3. 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.
    4. Thiemo Fetzer, 2022. "Subsidising the spread of COVID-19: Evidence from the UK’S Eat-Out-to-Help-Out Scheme," The Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 132(643), pages 1200-1217.
    5. Serra Garcia, Marta & Szech, Nora, 2020. "Understanding demand for COVID-19 antibody testing," Working Paper Series in Economics 140, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Department of Economics and Management.
    6. Andrew G. Atkeson & Karen Kopecky & Tao Zha, 2021. "Behavior and the Transmission of COVID-19," AEA Papers and Proceedings, American Economic Association, vol. 111, pages 356-360, May.
    7. Marta Serra-Garcia & Nora Szech, 2020. "Demand for Covid-19 Antibody Testing, and Why It Should Be Free," CESifo Working Paper Series 8340, CESifo.
    8. Gene Ambrocio, 2022. "Euro-area business confidence and COVID-19," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 54(43), pages 4915-4929, September.
    9. Benno Torgler, 2021. "Behavioral Taxation: Opportunities and Challenges," CREMA Working Paper Series 2021-25, Center for Research in Economics, Management and the Arts (CREMA).
    10. Dzung Bui & Lena Draeger & Bernd Hayo & Giang NghiemŸ, 2021. "The Effects of Fiscal Policy on Households during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Evidence from Emerging Economies," MAGKS Papers on Economics 202120, Philipps-Universität Marburg, Faculty of Business Administration and Economics, Department of Economics (Volkswirtschaftliche Abteilung).
    11. Onur Altindag & Bilge Erten & Pinar Keskin, 2022. "Mental Health Costs of Lockdowns: Evidence from Age-Specific Curfews in Turkey," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 14(2), pages 320-343, April.
    12. repec:zbw:bofrdp:2021_004 is not listed on IDEAS
    13. de Pedraza, Pablo & Guzi, Martin & Tijdens, Kea, 2020. "Life Dissatisfaction and Anxiety in COVID-19 pandemic," GLO Discussion Paper Series 544, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    14. Beuermann, Diether W. & Bottan, Nicolas L. & Hoffmann, Bridget & Jackson, C. Kirabo & Vera-Cossio, Diego, 2024. "Does education prevent job loss during downturns? Evidence from exogenous school assignments and COVID-19 in Barbados," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 162(C).
    15. Alistair Cole & Julien S. Baker & Dionysios Stivas, 2021. "Trust, Transparency and Transnational Lessons from COVID-19," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 14(12), pages 1-15, December.
    16. Aleksander Aristovnik & Damijana Keržič & Dejan Ravšelj & Nina Tomaževič & Lan Umek, 2020. "Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Life of Higher Education Students: A Global Perspective," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(20), pages 1-34, October.
    17. Sonja Settele & Cortnie Shupe, 2020. "Lives or Livelihoods? Perceived Tradeoffs and Public Demand for Non-Pharmaceutical Interventions," CEBI working paper series 20-17, University of Copenhagen. Department of Economics. The Center for Economic Behavior and Inequality (CEBI).
    18. 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.
    19. Mathias Huebener & Sevrin Waights & C. Katharina Spiess & Nico A. Siegel & Gert G. Wagner, 2021. "Parental well-being in times of Covid-19 in Germany," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 19(1), pages 91-122, March.
    20. Abel Brodeur & David Gray & Anik Islam & Suraiya Bhuiyan, 2021. "A literature review of the economics of COVID‐19," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 35(4), pages 1007-1044, September.
    21. 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).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Labor markets; Inequality; Public Health; Coronavirus Pandemic;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D14 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Household Saving; Personal Finance
    • I18 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Government Policy; Regulation; Public Health
    • I14 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Health and Inequality
    • I32 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - Measurement and Analysis of Poverty

    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:idb:brikps:10582. 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: Felipe Herrera Library (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/iadbbus.html .

    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.