Behavioral Economics of COVID-19 part-1
Mehul Gupta
Director @ PwC India | Economics, Public Finance, Financial Inclusion, Impact Assessment
COVID-19 has had a paramount impact in India. 21 days of lockdown has made many stay at home. To my memory, I can't recall any similar crisis where all of us was tied to stay at home for such long time. This is expected to have some behavioural impact both during the lockdown and consequent to the lockdown. Some of them are:
1.Sense of togetherness: COVID-19 has made many of families to not just wish balancing professional and personal life but actually practice. More family time would built sense of togetherness, trust within families and can have long-term benefits in terms of supporting systems for the elderly.
2. Spend with caution: The financial risks due to pay-cuts has made people spend with caution and avoid all necessary expenses. The longer is the lockdown, the more intensive would be change in behaviour in spending. Alarm for consumer goods/entertainment industry!!
3. Screen addiction: There are not enough ideas floating around what should normally a busy man/women should do when such kind of sudden halt is initiated. Government is going to telecast Ramayan again though. Large amount of people are spending time on mobile/television screens. This would further intensity screen addiction which has its own health and productivity impacts.
4. Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD): Extensive awareness campaigns to washing hands regularly may make elderly and children to be victim of OCD to wash hands even after things normalize. This may also create other health problems such as depression, obesity and anxiety, drug addiction.
5. Social isolation: 21 days of lockdown may actually push people be more introvert and less social especially the ones who were on the fringes. This may force us to move towards individualistic society from collective society.
This can also be a time when people can achieve self-realisation, the purpose of self, can work on their creative instincts and explore indoor hobbies.
Government should be cognizant of many of the behavioural impacts and should provide services such as telecasting mental therapies using effective messenger to which all can listen and act upon.
Research Manager | J-PAL | Behavioraldevlab.org | Development Research | The World Bank | Nathan Economics Consulting | M.Sc. Economics
4 年Concise and neat
Product Manager - MTD IT
4 年This would also make people more comfortable working from home and might even make it difficult to work from their office locations once the lockdown is up.
Economics & Public Policy | Government & Public Sector Advisory |Management Consulting | Research
4 年Good points. I also feel that one more behavioral aspect of being self reliant is coming to fore, with the absence of domestic helps amidst lockdown. People earlier reliant only on the house helps for their meals are now doing it collaboratively. While doing so, they are not only cooking healthy but also rationing the raw materials used.