Coping Strategies, Well-Being and Inequalities during the COVID-19 Pandemic Period

As a response to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, governments around the globe have carried on strict lockdown measures affecting millions of jobs, public life, and the well-being of people. This study aims to examine the subjective well-being (SWB) of people, such as the perception of the economic situation and mental well-being, who made adjustments to cope with the earning losses. We estimate the well-being costs, which is the money required to compensate people because of the reduction in earnings or employment loss and the coping strategy followed, to bring their well-being at the levels of those who have not adopted any coping strategy. We examine two outcomes; the perception of the economic situation and a mental well-being index. We employ data from the ERF COVID-19 MENA Monitor Surveys for Egypt, Jordan, Morocco and Tunisia. The results show that coping strategies with the earning losses have a significant detrimental impact on well-being and are associated with significant costs. In most cases, the coping strategies of borrowing from banks or a private lender and selling assets present the highest well-being costs. Furthermore, the estimates highlight significant discrepancies across gender and types of workers, such as those employed in the informal sector and temporary contracts.