The pandemic poverty penalty: how COVID-19 complicates our measure of household well-being

Some countries measure well-being, including inequalities in well-being, by consumption. But when people no longer travel to work or eat in restaurants because of COVID, the assumed relationship between spending and well-being – already loose, because of the poverty penalty – breaks down. Laura Caron (Columbia) and Erwin R Tiongson (Georgetown) say economists need to become better attuned to new sources of inequality.