A new study by ISER’s Centre for Microsimulation and Policy Analysis has compared the impact of policy responses by 28 European governments reacting to the pandemic lockdowns, looking specifically at how this affected gender income inequality.
Using a quasi-experimental approach that combines microsimulation and nowcasting techniques, the research team, Dr Silvia Avram, Dr Daria Popova and Professor Rioboo Irene, constructed counterfactual scenarios to estimate the net effects of pandemic-related labor market shocks and government interventions on the incomes of women and men.
By employing a gender-sensitive measure of disposable income, they were able to address intra-household inequality often overlooked in distributional research.
These findings show that although both working age men and women experienced income losses in 2020, these were significantly mitigated by tax-benefit policies.
Men, on average, benefitted more from furlough due to greater employment losses and higher pre-pandemic earnings, while women benefitted from the progressive design of other policy measures.
On average, the ratio of women’s to men’s disposable incomes rose slightly, indicating a temporary narrowing of the gender income gap.
These results highlight the equalizing role of expansive social protection during pandemic and underscore the importance of gender-aware policy analysis.
Read the full paper here.
Avram, S., Popova, D., and Irene, R. (2025) Gender income inequality during the COVID-19 pandemic in Europe: the role of government response. CeMPA Working Paper Series no. 7/25. Available at: https://www.iser.essex.ac.uk/research/publications/working-papers/cempa/cempa7-25