Restarting “normal” life after Covid-19 and the lockdown: Evidence from Spain, the United Kingdom, and Italy

Currently, unprecedented series of events are taking place that affect the institutional structure of the world economy and the social fabric of our societies. In this article, we examine the expectations of the economic outlook, fear of the future, and behavioural change during the lockdown, for three European countries (Spain, the United Kingdom, and Italy) that have been severely hit by Covid-19. We use a novel data source that we collected to monitor the three countries during the pandemic. As outcome variables, we use expectations (e.g., economic outlook, labour market situation, recovery), fear (e.g., scenario of new outburst, economic depression, restriction to individual rights and freedom), and behavioural change across the following dimensions: savings, cultural consumption, social capital, and risky behaviour. After providing descriptive evidence that is representative of the population of interest, using longitudinal data from the same survey on exposure to shocks and matching techniques, we estimate the impact of exposure to shock occurred during the crisis on the same outcome variables.