A new GLO Discussion Paper finds that due to COVID-19 female self-employed are 35% more likely to experience income losses than their male counterparts, whereas no comparable gender gap is observed among employees. Self-employed women are significantly more likely to be impacted by government-imposed restrictions.
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GLO Discussion Paper No. 788, 2021
COVID-19: a crisis of the female self-employed– Download PDF
by Graeber, Daniel & Kritikos, Alexander S. & Seebauer, Johannes
Forthcoming: Journal of Population Economics
GLO Fellow Alexander Kritikos
Author Abstract: We investigate how the economic consequences of the pandemic, and of the government mandated measures to contain its spread, affect the self-employed – particularly women – in Germany. For our analysis, we use representative, real-time survey data in which respondents were asked about their situation during the COVID-19 pandemic. Our findings indicate that among the self-employed, who generally face a higher likelihood of income losses due to COVID-19 than employees, women are 35% more likely to experience income losses than their male counterparts. Conversely, we do not find a comparable gender gap among employees. Our results further suggest that the gender gap among the self-employed is largely explained by the fact that women disproportionately work in industries that are more severely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Our analysis of potential mechanisms reveals that women are significantly more likely to be impacted by government-imposed restrictions, i.e. the regulation of opening hours. We conclude that future policy measures intending to mitigate the consequences of such shocks should account for this considerable variation in economic hardship.
More from the GLO Coronavirus Cluster
GLO Discussion Papers are research and policy papers of the GLO Network which are widely circulated to encourage discussion. Provided in cooperation with EconStor, a service of the ZBW – Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, GLO Discussion Papers are among others listed in RePEc (see IDEAS, EconPapers). Complete list of all GLO DPs – downloadable for free.
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