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Impact Of Covid-19 Pandemic On Household Financial Decisions: A Consumer Vulnerability Perspective, Atefeh Yazdanparast, Yasser Alhenawi

School of Business

This study joins a rapidly growing body of research that investigates the multi-faceted impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic on consumers' behavior. Specifically, we examine how the pandemic-induced state of vulnerability impacts consumers' saving, investing, and spending decisions. Using survey data from four different countries (i.e., USA, UK, South Africa, and Mexico), we examine the role of personality on consumer vulnerability, create an index of consumer vulnerability, and establish the role of vulnerability in impacting important financial decisions. We report evidence that perceptions of vulnerability and the pandemic-induced changes in financial and consumption behaviors vary across residents of developed and developing …