The public health measures implemented to limit the COVID-19 pandemic are likely to affect economic inequalities. In this paper we first provide a theoretical framework to analyse how income inequality contributes shaping the trade-off between economic lockdown and contagion. Our empirical analysis on EU countries shows that the lockdown is likely to significantly increase inequality and poverty and that the magnitude of the change is larger in more unequal countries. To avoid social collapse, countries must consider inequality as an additional source of fragility, while supranational, coordinated health and fiscal policies are needed in the interest of all European economies.

为限制 COVID-19 大流行而采取的公共卫生措施可能会影响经济不平等。在本文中，我们首先提供一个理论框架来分析收入不平等如何影响经济封锁和传染之间的权衡。我们对欧盟国家的实证分析表明，封锁可能会显着加剧不平等和贫困，而且在不平等程度较高的国家，这种变化的幅度更大。为了避免社会崩溃，各国必须将不平等视为脆弱性的另一个来源，同时为了所有欧洲经济体的利益，需要超国家、协调一致的卫生和财政政策。