Effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on income impoverishment in Ecuador

Abstract

The pandemic increased poverty worldwide. However, the mechanisms affecting its determining factors still need to be clarified. This paper studies this problem using a probabilistic model of poverty extended with pandemic incidence variables and applying logistic regression at the household level. For the case of Ecuador, we use the December rounds of the 2019 and 2020 National Survey for Employment, Underemployment and Unemployment (ENEMDU), the administrative record of the Covid-19 epidemiological report, and the administrative history of deaths. The results show that the pandemic’s impact on poverty was through the gender gap and labor market structure.