Abstract
As the COVID-19 pandemic hit the world economy in the beginning of 2020, concerns were soon raised about potentially increasing inequality in many dimensions. With respect to gender differences, an early study by Alon et al. (2020) pointed to a number of reasons why the pandemic recession, unlike traditional ones, may become more severe for women. Subsequent studies have found mixed evidence. On the one hand, based on survey data from the UK and the US (Adams-Prassl et al., 2020), and based on administrative data from the US (Cajner et al., 2020), negative labour market outcomes have indeed been worse for women. On the other hand, Adams-Prasslet al. (2020) found no evidence of unequal impacts by gender in Germany, nor was it the case in Italy according to Casarico and Lattanzio (2020). At present, it does appear that the effects, on average, disadvantage women, however, labour market outcomes by gender vary across countries (see e.g. Hupkau and Petrongolo, 2020; Bluedorn et al., 2021; and Alon et al., 2021).