A year of COVID: the evolution of labour market and financial inequalities through the crisis

Publication type

Journal Article

Authors

Publication date

July 15, 2023

Summary:

We use high-quality UK panel data to document the extent that pre-existing labour market and financial inequalities were exacerbated by the pandemic between April 2020 and September 2021. Some inequalities worsened, others did not, and in some cases, initial widening of labour market inequalities was subsequently reversed. We find no evidence of an overall divergence in labour market outcomes by gender. Initial changes for ethnic minorities and the young were largely reversed by March 2021. Those in the top third of the long-run income distribution experienced income falls, but also increased saving. Net wealth increased not for only the affluent, but also for middle deciles of the long-run income distribution. These deciles were most protected by the furlough scheme. Those at the bottom of the income distribution were more likely to report a decline in net wealth over the year.

Published in

Oxford Economic Papers

Volume and page numbers

Volume: 75 , p.589 -612

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1093/oep/gpac040

ISSN

307653

Subjects

Notes

Open Access

This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons CC BY license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.


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