IMPACT OF THE ECONOMIC CRISIS CAUSED BY THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC ON THE CONSUMPTION STRUCTURE OF THE POPULATION

Abstract

COVID-19 has led to severe and acute losses in many economies around the world due to the disease and government social distancing directives. The impact and duration of the economic crisis on individual households and individual behaviors, which is a result of the pandemic, is difficult to predict as many factors influence the duration of the crisis. It is also difficult to predict the future movements of affected industries as well as post-crisis behaviors and recovery after the crisis. The coronavirus pandemic initiated the largest deterioration of the global economy in one year in recent economic history. This paper aims to assess the correlation between consumer experiences with COVID-19 and changes in their food purchasing decisions in the short term (i.e., during lockdowns and the state of emergency that lasted in 2020 and 2021) and in the long term (i.e. after the state of emergency of the pandemic is over). The main goal of the authors is to assess whether changes in consumer behavior during restrictive measures disappeared with their conclusion or whether it can be expected that some effects will last over time. The main contribution of the paper is the research on the correlation between the consequences and the expected duration of changes in consumption patterns. The analysis considers factors associated with the impact of restrictive measures – such as attitudes towards the disease and fear of exposure to the risk of virus infection – and assesses the correlation with current (i.e., during quarantine) and planned (i.e., after the state of emergency is over) purchasing decisions. This approach allows us to test the hypothesis that the COVID-19 crisis will have a long-term impact on consumer attitudes towards purchasing products and the way of purchasing products. The work contributes to the rapidly growing literature on the impact of COVID-19 on food consumption. As many authors claim, COVID-19 is an "unprecedented episode in the last 100 years of human history," different from other unpredictable catastrophic events in terms of public health consequences and economic decline. The purpose of this research paper is to examine the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on consumer behavior, and to answer the question: Will consumers permanently change their consumption habits due to isolation and social protection distancing, or will they return to their old habits after the global crisis? The hypothesis that the author tries to prove in the paper is that the COVID-19 crisis has had a shortterm impact on the stockpiling of food and a long-term increase in the propensity for online shopping among consumers.