Gender inequality during the COVID-19 pandemic: Income, expenditure, savings, and job loss

The COVID-19 outbreak has brought unprecedented disruptions to the global economies and has led to income loss and high unemployment rates. But scant, if any, evidence exists on gender gaps in economic outcomes such as income, expenditure, savings, and job loss in a multi-country setting. We investigate the impacts of COVID-19 on gender inequality in these outcomes using data from a six country survey that covers countries in different geographical locations and at various income levels. Our findings suggest that women are 24 percent more likely to permanently lose their job than men because of the outbreak. Women also expect their labor income to fall by 50 percent more than men do. Perhaps because of these concerns, women tend to reduce their current consumption and increase savings. Factors such as the different participation rates in work industries for men and women may take an important part in explaining these gender gaps. Our estimates also point to country heterogeneity in these gender differences that is likely due to varying infection rates and shares of women in the labor force. (C)yyy 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Automated summary

The study found that the COVID-19 outbreak has led to a higher risk of job loss and income reduction for women compared to men, causing women to reduce consumption and increase savings. Gender gaps in economic outcomes may be partially explained by differences in participation rates in work industries for men and women.