Covid-19 Pandemic and Its Impact on Household Financial Behavior in Indonesia

Abstract

The global pandemic, previously only a health crisis, has been slowly causing the economic crisis. The government policy to lockdown and apply social distancing affected the social and economic lives of the countries. The policy affected businesses and led companies to lay off their employees. Many households were suffering economically because of this pandemic. This research aims to identify the changes in household financial behaviour during the covid-19 pandemic. This research is vital as it is the first to explore household financial behaviour during a pandemic which uses a quantitative method of an online survey with 635 participants in Indonesia. Participants’ perceptions on their behaviour during the most challenging time of covid-19 (mid-2020) were compared to their current behaviour and the differences were analysed thoroughly. The results show that spending and insurance behaviour did not change during the pandemic, but the saving and investment behaviour increased significantly during the pandemic. Pandemic warns people that they need investment and savings to survive in an emergency. As the pandemic is still ongoing and there were different government policies between the first and fourth waves, the impact on the economy and households needs to be examined in a more extended period.