The impact of COVID-19 on households ́ income in the EU
com document
Συγγραφέας
Vanda, Almeida
Barrios, Salvador
Christl, Michael
De Poli, Silvia
Tumino, Alberto
Ημερομηνία
2021-06-01Προβολή/ Άνοιγμα
Θεματικές επικεφαλίδες
COVID-19 ; Fiscal policy ; Earnings subsidies ; Income distribution ; UnemploymentΠερίληψη
This analysis makes use of economic forecasts for 2020 issued by the European Com-
mission in Autumn 2019 and Spring 2020, and of a counterfactual under a no-policy
change assumption, to analyse the impact of the COVID-19 crisis on EU households ́
income. Additionally, our analysis assesses the cushioning effect of discretionary fiscal
policy measures taken by the EU Member States. We find that the COVID-19 pandemic
is likely to affect significantly households’disposable income in the EU, with lower
income households being more severely hit. However, our results show that due to policy
intervention, the impact of the crisis is expected to be similar to the one experienced
during the 2008–2009 financial crisis. In detail, our results indicate that discretionary
fiscal policy measures will play a significant cushioning role, reducing the size of the
income loss (from −9.3% to −4.3% for the average equivalised disposable income), its
regressivity and mitigating the poverty impact of the pandemic. We conclude that policy
interventions are therefore instrumental in cushioning against the impact of the crisis on
inequality and poverty.
Αριθμός σελίδων
19p.Γλώσσα
ΑγγλικάΣημείωση
Publisher’s Note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.The Journal of Economic Inequality (2021) 19:413 43