Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/232855 
Year of Publication: 
2021
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 14103
Publisher: 
Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
We study whether exposure to COVID-19 has affected individual aversion to health and income inequality in the UK, Italy, and Germany, as well as the effect of personal shocks on employment (redundancies, government replacement salary and unemployment), income and health directly linked to COVID-19. We find that conditioned on risk aversion and relevant covariates (income, education, demographics), individuals who have experienced either a health or an financial shock during the COVID-19 pandemic, exhibit lower inequality aversion in terms of health and income, compared to those who have not experienced these shocks. Comparing levels of health and income inequality aversion in the UK between the years 2016 and 2020 we find a significant increase in inequality aversion from 2016 to 2020 in both health (17.3%) and income domains (8.8%). However, our difference-in-differences (DiD) for treatment (risk) groups defined in terms of age, region and personal exposure to health and income shocks in 2020 compared to 2016, does not indicate any additional difference in inequality aversion. The exception being individuals who are both in a high-risk age group and at the same time also experienced a health shock in 2020 compared to 2016, which are significantly more inequality averse in both health and income domains.
Subjects: 
inequality aversion
income
health
COVID-19
attitudes to inequality
employment shocks
health shocks
difference in differences
JEL: 
I18
I30
I38
Document Type: 
Working Paper

Files in This Item:
File
Size
804.46 kB





Items in EconStor are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.