Income inequality in year one of the pandemic
Fecha: septiembre 2022
Eduardo Bandrés
Income inequality
SEFO, Spanish and International Economic & Financial Outlook, V. 11 N.º 5 (September 2022)
Were it not for the mitigating social protection measures rolled out, the effects of COVID-19 on Spanish households’ primary income would have been felt more keenly in the lower income brackets and would have translated into a sharp increase in inequality. Public transfers offset a significant portion of the income lost by the households most affected by unemployment or disability. However, they were not capable of fully neutralising the increase in inequality. The adverse effect on disposable income was concentrated in the first decile of the income distribution. Moreover, the persistence of pockets of poverty in Spain cannot be blamed on the crisis induced by the pandemic but rather must be attributed to more structural factors related with low levels of education and job qualifications in some segments of the population, the insufficiency of the minimum income scheme, the scarcity of help for families and the limited size of non-contributory pensions.