COVID-19 and (gender) inequality in income: the impact of discretionary policy measures in Austria

Michael Christl; Silvia De Poli; Dénes Kucsera; Hanno Lorenz

doi:10.1186/s41937-022-00084-6

COVID-19 and (gender) inequality in income: the impact of discretionary policy measures in Austria

Swiss J Econ Stat. 2022;158(1):4. doi: 10.1186/s41937-022-00084-6. Epub 2022 Feb 5.

Authors

Michael Christl¹, Silvia De Poli¹, Dénes Kucsera², Hanno Lorenz²

Affiliations

¹ Fiscal Policy Analysis (B2 Unit), European Commission (JRC), Seville, Spain.
² Agenda Austria, Vienna, Austria.

Abstract

This paper analyzes the impact of the COVID-19 crisis on household income in Austria, using detailed administrative labor market data, in combination with micro-simulation techniques that enable specific labor market transitions to be modeled. We find that discretionary fiscal policy measures in Austria are key to counteracting the inequality- and poverty-enhancing effect of COVID-19. Additionally, we find that females tend to experience a greater loss in terms of market income. The Austrian tax-benefit system, however, reduces this gender differences. Disposable income has dropped by around 1% for both males and females. By comparison, males profit mainly from short-time work scheme, while females profit especially from other discretionary policy measures, such as the one-off payment for children.

Keywords: Automatic stabilizers; COVID-19; EUROMOD; Micro-simulation; STW.