Policy Briefs
COVID-19 Shock on Quality of Life: How Do People Cope and What is the Cost?
No.
PB 68
Publisher
ERF
Date
December, 2021
Topic
H. Public Economics
I. Health, Education, and Welfare
In a nutshell
- As a response to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, governments around the globe have carried on strict lockdown measures affecting millions of jobs, public life, and the well-being of people.
- This policy brief examines the subjective well-being (SWB) of people, such as the perception of the economic situation and mental well-being, who made adjustments to cope with the earning losses.
- We estimate the well-being costs, which is the money required to compensate people because of the reduction in earnings or employment loss and the coping strategy followed, to bring their well-being at the levels of those who have not adopted any coping strategy. We examine two outcomes; the perception of the economic situation and a mental well-being index. We employ data from the ERF COVID-19 MENA Monitor Surveys for Egypt, Jordan, Morocco and Tunisia.
- The results show that coping strategies with the earning losses have a significant detrimental impact on well-being and are associated with significant costs. In most cases, the coping strategies of borrowing from banks or a private lender and selling assets are associated with the highest well-being costs.
- Furthermore, the estimates highlight significant discrepancies across gender and types of workers, such as those employed in the informal sector and temporary contracts.
Authors
Eleftherios Giovanis
Associate Professor of Economics, Department of International...
Research Fellows
Oznur Ozdamar
Associate Professor of Economics, Department of Econometrics,...