Impacts of the COVID Lockdown on Consumption: Household Data from India

Abstract

In this paper, we quantify impacts on consumption expenditure and patterns following India’s initial sudden lockdown in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and the gradual relaxation that followed. We use household survey data from a representative Indian state, Punjab. We separate the effects on rural versus urban households, and by whether households were female-headed, or had daily laborers. While the urban population cut back expenditure across all categories, rural households shifted toward basic commodities and cut back more on other expenditure. Rural households that included daily-wage laborers were the most severely affected.