Impacts of COVID-19 on households in ASEAN countries: Medium-run impacts and their implications for human capital development

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting falls in demand are severely affecting Asian households. At the same time, governments implemented aid programs to support households and businesses. To better understand these impacts, we carried out two waves of interviews of households in seven ASEAN countries. The following factors contributed to declines in expenditure and the experience of financial difficulty: being in a lower-income group, lower education of household head, female household head, job loss, and location in a lockdown area. The amount of government aid received relative to pre-pandemic income was much higher for lower-income groups. We find a positive effect of government aid on reducing the experience of financial difficulty.