IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/iza/izadps/dp13567.html

Can Stimulus Checks Boost an Economy under COVID-19? Evidence from South Korea

Author

Listed:
  • Kim, Moon Jung

    (Korea Institute of Public Finance (KIPF))

  • Lee, Soohyung

    (Seoul National University)

Abstract

Various countries have implemented transfer programs to individuals since the Covid-19 outbreaks. However, the extent to which such transfers alleviate economic recessions is unclear. This paper analyzes a South Korean program, which provided vouchers redeemable only at small local businesses. We find that, due to the program, over 30% of households across all income groups increased their food and overall household spending, but the usage restriction may have affected consumer choice, distorting business competition. While the employment and sales of small businesses improved, the program's fiscal sustainability is in question because of the large tax exemption.

Suggested Citation

  • Kim, Moon Jung & Lee, Soohyung, 2020. "Can Stimulus Checks Boost an Economy under COVID-19? Evidence from South Korea," IZA Discussion Papers 13567, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp13567
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://docs.iza.org/dp13567.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Scott R. Baker & Robert A Farrokhnia & Steffen Meyer & Michaela Pagel & Constantine Yannelis, 2023. "Income, Liquidity, and the Consumption Response to the 2020 Economic Stimulus Payments," Review of Finance, European Finance Association, vol. 27(6), pages 2271-2304.
    2. Raj Chetty & John N Friedman & Michael Stepner & Opportunity Insights Team & Camille Baker & Harvey Barnhard & Matt Bell & Gregory Bruich & Tina Chelidze & Lucas Chu & Westley Cineus & Sebi Devlin-Fol, 2024. "The Economic Impacts of COVID-19: Evidence from a New Public Database Built Using Private Sector Data," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 139(2), pages 829-889.
    3. Hsieh, Chang-Tai & Shimizutani, Satoshi & Hori, Masahiro, 2010. "Did Japan's shopping coupon program increase spending?," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 94(7-8), pages 523-529, August.
    4. Kamhon Kan & Shin-Kun Peng & Ping Wang, 2017. "Understanding Consumption Behavior: Evidence from Consumers' Reaction to Shopping Vouchers," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 9(1), pages 137-153, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    RePEc Biblio mentions

    As found on the RePEc Biblio, the curated bibliography for Economics:
    1. > Economics of Welfare > Health Economics > Economics of Pandemics > Specific pandemics > Covid-19 > Economic policy > Household support > Cash transfers

    Citations

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


    Cited by:

    1. Seungjun Baek & Seongeun Kim & Tae-hwan Rhee & Wonmun Shin, 2023. "How effective are universal payments for raising consumption? Evidence from a natural experiment," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 65(5), pages 2181-2211, November.
    2. Masciandaro, Donato & Goodhart, Charles & Ugolini, Stefano, 2021. "Pandemic recession and helicopter money: Venice, 1629–1631," Financial History Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 28(3), pages 300-318, December.
    3. Seokjin Woo & Sangmin Aum & Dohyung Kim & Heyjin Moon & Soohyung Lee, 2022. "Consumption Response to Seoul’s COVID-19 Shopping Coupons: Evidence from Consumer Data (Covid-19 Special Issue)," Korean Economic Review, Korean Economic Association, vol. 38, pages 231-250.
    4. Satoshi Tanaka, 2022. "Economic Impacts of SARS/MERS/COVID‐19 in Asian Countries," Asian Economic Policy Review, Japan Center for Economic Research, vol. 17(1), pages 41-61, January.
    5. Kubota, So & Onishi, Koichiro & Toyama, Yuta, 2021. "Consumption responses to COVID-19 payments: Evidence from a natural experiment and bank account data," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 188(C), pages 1-17.
    6. Woo, Seokjin & Aum, Sangmin & Kim, Dohyung & Moon, Heyjin & Lee, Soohyung, 2021. "Consumption Response to Seoul's COVID-19 Shopping Coupons: Evidence from Consumer Data," IZA Discussion Papers 14662, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).

    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. Hoon Choi, 2022. "Effect of COVID‐19 stimulus payments on sales of local small businesses: Quasi‐experimental evidence from Korea," Pacific Economic Review, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 27(4), pages 340-360, October.
    2. Qiao Liu & Qiaowei Shen & Zhenghua Li & Shu Chen, 2021. "Stimulating Consumption at Low Budget: Evidence from a Large-Scale Policy Experiment Amid the COVID-19 Pandemic," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 67(12), pages 7291-7307, December.
    3. Kim, Jihee & Lee, Susang, 2024. "Can stimulus checks to households save the local economy? The impact of South Korea’s COVID-19 stimulus on small business sales," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 84(C), pages 159-176.
    4. Jianwei Xing & Eric Yongchen Zou & Zhentoa Yin & Yong Wang & Zhenhua Li, 2023. ""Quick Response" Economic Stimulus: The Effect of Small-Value Digital Coupons on Spending," American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 15(4), pages 249-304, October.
    5. Abe Dunn & Mahsa Gholizadeh, 2025. "The Geography of Consumption and Local Economic Shocks: The Case of the Great Recession," American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 17(2), pages 206-244, April.
    6. Kim, Meeroo & Oh, Yoon Hae, 2021. "The Impact of COVID-19 Regional Cash Subsidies on the Sales of Local Businesses in South Korea," KDI Journal of Economic Policy, Korea Development Institute (KDI), vol. 43(2), pages 103-123.
    7. Kindsgrab, Paul M., 2022. "Do higher income taxes on top earners trickle down? A local labor markets approach," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 214(C).
    8. Martin O'Connell & Áureo de Paula & Kate Smith, 2021. "Preparing for a pandemic: spending dynamics and panic buying during the COVID‐19 first wave," Fiscal Studies, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 42(2), pages 249-264, June.
    9. Seungjun Baek & Seongeun Kim & Tae-hwan Rhee & Wonmun Shin, 2023. "How effective are universal payments for raising consumption? Evidence from a natural experiment," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 65(5), pages 2181-2211, November.
    10. Xiong, Yanyan & Cui, Xue & Yu, Liuming, 2024. "Impact of COVID-19 pandemic on online consumption share: Evidence from China's mobile payment data," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 81(C).
    11. David Andolfatto, 2020. "Hot Money for a Cold Economy," Working Papers 2020-019, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.
    12. Feng-Li Lin & Wen-Yi Chen, 2020. "Did the Consumption Voucher Scheme Stimulate the Economy? Evidence from Smooth Time-Varying Cointegration Analysis," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(12), pages 1-16, June.
    13. James MacGee & Thomas Michael Pugh & Kurt See, 2022. "The heterogeneous effects of COVID‐19 on Canadian household consumption, debt and savings," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 55(S1), pages 54-87, February.
    14. Woo, Seokjin & Aum, Sangmin & Kim, Dohyung & Moon, Heyjin & Lee, Soohyung, 2021. "Consumption Response to Seoul's COVID-19 Shopping Coupons: Evidence from Consumer Data," IZA Discussion Papers 14662, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    15. Ku, Inhoe & Ham, Sunyu & Moon, Heyjin, 2023. "Means-tested COVID-19 stimulus payment and consumer spending: Evidence from card transaction data in South Korea," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 1359-1371.
    16. Goldfayn-Frank, Olga & Lewis, Vivien & Wehrhöfer, Nils, 2022. "Spending effects of child-related fiscal transfers," Discussion Papers 26/2022, Deutsche Bundesbank.
    17. Donghoon Lee & Daniel Mangrum & Wilbert Van der Klaauw & Crystal Wang, 2024. "Financial Education and Household Financial Decisions During the Pandemic," Staff Reports 1131, Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
    18. Bartal, Mehdi & Becard, Yvan, 2024. "Consumption tax cuts vs stimulus payments," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 239(C).
    19. Anson T. Y. Ho & Lealand Morin & Harry J. Paarsch & Kim P. Huynh, 2022. "Consumer credit usage in Canada during the coronavirus pandemic," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 55(S1), pages 88-114, February.
    20. Myoung-jae Lee & Yasuyuki Sawada, 2020. "Review on Difference in Differences," Korean Economic Review, Korean Economic Association, vol. 36, pages 135-173.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • H2 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue
    • H6 - Public Economics - - National Budget, Deficit, and Debt
    • D3 - Microeconomics - - Distribution
    • D6 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics
    • L1 - Industrial Organization - - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:iza:izadps:dp13567. 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: Holger Hinte (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/izaaade.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.