Food consumption changes during 2020 lockdown in Italy

Beatrice Braut; Matteo Migheli; Elisa Truant

doi:10.1016/j.rie.2022.06.002

Food consumption changes during 2020 lockdown in Italy

Res Econ. 2022 Jun;76(2):107-119. doi: 10.1016/j.rie.2022.06.002. Epub 2022 Jul 2.

Authors

Beatrice Braut¹, Matteo Migheli^{1

2}, Elisa Truant³

Affiliations

¹ Department of Economics and Statistics "Cognetti de Martiis", University of Torino, lungo Dora Siena, 100 I-10153, Torino, TO, Italy.
² OEET, Collegio Carlo Alberto, piazza Arabarello, Torino, TO 8 I-10123, Italy.
³ Department of Management, corso Unione Sovietica, University of Torino, 218bis I-10134, Torino, TO, Italy.

Abstract

The lockdown imposed to limit the diffusion of COVID-19 in Italy affected the economic situation negatively. The income of many households decreased, and people were forced to stay home. Both these factors influenced food consumption: on the one hand less income means less money for purchases, on the other, the negative psychological impact of lesser income and the pandemic shifted the consumption towards alcohol and tobacco. Using survey data, this paper shows how the negative economic shock due to lockdown, together with the restrictions imposed by it, affected the consumption of food items in a region of Norther Italy.

Keywords: COVID-19; Consumption; Economic downturn; Food purchases; Italy; Lockdown.