NEW YORK – On Thursday, May 13, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York's Liberty Street Economics blog will release a two-part series exploring how the pandemic has affected consumer spending, including disparities based on income and race.
The new series builds on the Liberty Street Economics research series on Economic Inequality, highlights differences in economic outcomes and policy impacts by race, gender, age, geography, income, education, and other factors. These two blogs examine the decline and subsequent recovery of consumer spending during the COVID-19 pandemic, looking at income and racial differences in overall consumer spending, the goods and services that were most adversely affected, or constrained, by the pandemic, and variation in expenditure across households.
The latest series will feature the following posts:
"Racial and Income Gaps in Consumer Spending Following COVID-19" focuses on income and racial differences in overall consumer spending to understand whether the decline and the subsequent recovery of consumer spending were experienced equally across communities that differ by income and race.
"Who's Ready to Spend? Constrained Consumption Across the Income Distribution" explores the goods and services that were most adversely constrained by the pandemic and which households were more exposed to these pandemic-constrained expenditure categories.
For related media inquiries, please contact Mariah Measey at Mariah.Measey@ny.frb.org.
