Sam, Hannah, Nsababera, Olive and Mendiratta, Vibhuti (2023) The Impact of COVID-19 on Household Welfare in the Comoros: The Experience of a Small Island Developing State. In: The Coronavirus Pandemic and Inequality- Global Perspective. Global Perspectives on Wealth and Distribution. Palgrave Macmillan, London, UK, pp. 163-217. ISBN 3031222202

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Abstract

In this paper, we investigate the causal impact of a stringent Covid-19 lockdown policy on Comoros's household welfare, poverty, and labor market outcomes. Our identification strategy uses the national government lockdown policy implemented to curtail the unexpected outbreak of Covid-19. The lockdown policy coincided with the 2020 Harmonised Survey on Living Conditions of Households (EHCVM) data collection. It lends itself to a quasi-natural experiment in which households interviewed before the lockdown policy fall into the control while those interviewed after the lockdown fall into the treated group. We explore the impact of the Covid-19 using descriptive regression analysis and matching techniques and find a reduction in household expenditure, increased poverty, and a reduction in the likelihood of employment. The reduced welfare outcomes linger three months after the lockdown policy, and households resorted to selling expensive assets as a coping mechanism. In the absence of safety nets and government interventions, stringent lockdown policies increase the vulnerability to poverty for a developing country.

Item Type:	Book Section
Identifier:	10.1007/978-3-031-22219-1
Keywords:	Covid-19, lockdown, welfare, poverty, employment, Comoros
Subjects:	Business and finance
Depositing User:	Hannah Sam
Date Deposited:	25 Sep 2023 10:34
Last Modified:	04 Nov 2024 11:31
URI:	https://repository.uwl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10020

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