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The Finances of European Households Throughout the Pandemic

Romina Gambacorta, Alfonso Rosolia, Francesca Zanichelli

Research on Economic Inequality: Poverty, Inequality and Shocks

ISBN: 978-1-80071-558-5, eISBN: 978-1-80071-557-8

Publication date: 2 December 2021

Abstract

In 2020, household incomes were severely hit by the lockdowns imposed across the world in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Using data from the last available wave of the euro-area harmonized Household Finance and Consumption Survey for 2016, this chapter documents European households’ financial resilience to this shock, based on pre-shock balance sheets, potential exposure to COVID-19, and in the absence of government interventions. The results highlight that there are large and similar shares of the population across European countries that are likely to suffer from the economic fallout of containment measures – albeit through different channels.

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Acknowledgements

Acknowledgments

The opinions expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Bank of Italy or of the European System of Central Banks. We are grateful to Andrea Brandolini and to an anonymous referee for their helpful comments and suggestions.

Citation

Gambacorta, R., Rosolia, A. and Zanichelli, F. (2021), "The Finances of European Households Throughout the Pandemic", Bandyopadhyay, S. (Ed.) Research on Economic Inequality: Poverty, Inequality and Shocks (Research on Economic Inequality, Vol. 29), Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 249-267. https://doi.org/10.1108/S1049-258520210000029011

Publisher

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Emerald Publishing Limited