TY - JOUR

T1 - Consumer responses to the Covid-19 crisis

T2 - Evidence from bank account transaction data

AU - Andersen, Asger Lau

AU - Hansen, Emil Toft

AU - Johannesen, Niels

AU - Sheridan, Adam

PY - 2022

Y1 - 2022

N2 - This paper uses transaction-level bank account data from Denmark to study the dynamics of consumer spending during the Covid-19 pandemic. We document that aggregate spending initially dropped by almost 30% but recovered almost fully after the first wave. While spending plummeted in categories severely affected by supply restrictions, it increased in unaffected categories. Individual exposure to health risks and supply restrictions was associated with much larger spending cuts than exposure to income risk and unemployment. The findings suggest that the contraction was mainly caused by temporary health risks and supply restrictions, with a limited role for persistent negative spill-overs.

AB - This paper uses transaction-level bank account data from Denmark to study the dynamics of consumer spending during the Covid-19 pandemic. We document that aggregate spending initially dropped by almost 30% but recovered almost fully after the first wave. While spending plummeted in categories severely affected by supply restrictions, it increased in unaffected categories. Individual exposure to health risks and supply restrictions was associated with much larger spending cuts than exposure to income risk and unemployment. The findings suggest that the contraction was mainly caused by temporary health risks and supply restrictions, with a limited role for persistent negative spill-overs.

KW - Faculty of Social Sciences

KW - Covid-19

KW - Consumption

U2 - 10.1111/sjoe.12512

DO - 10.1111/sjoe.12512

M3 - Journal article

C2 - 35942421

VL - 124

SP - 905

EP - 929

JO - Scandinavian Journal of Economics

JF - Scandinavian Journal of Economics

SN - 0347-0520

IS - 4

ER -