A new GLO Discussion Paper finds that the pandemic makes people unhappy in general, but more disadvantaged people including those poor, rural, female and older are more likely to suffer.

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GLO Discussion Paper No. 768, 2021

Does the COVID-19 Pandemic Cause People to Be Unhappy? Evidence from a Six-Country Survey – Download PDF
by Nguyen, Cuong Viet

GLO Fellow Cuong Nguyen

Author Abstract: Does the COVID-19 pandemic cause people unhappy? In this study, we use a recent survey from China, Japan, South Korea, Italy, the United Kingdom and the United States to explore this question. We find a relatively large effect: a one per-mille point increase in the incidence of the COVID-19 cases increases the probability of unhappiness by 0.002. Possibly channels through which the COVID-19 pandemic causes unhappiness are negative effects on economic outcomes and social interactions of people. We also find that more disadvantaged people including poor, rural, female and older people are more likely to be affected by the pandemic.

More from the GLO Coronavirus Cluster

GLO Discussion Papers are research and policy papers of the GLO Network which are widely circulated to encourage discussion. Provided in cooperation with EconStor, a service of the ZBW – Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, GLO Discussion Papers are among others listed in RePEc (see IDEAS,  EconPapers). Complete list of all GLO DPs – downloadable for free.

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