Inequality in Life and Deathy Martin S. Eichenbaumz Sergio Rebelox Mathias Trabandt{ July 15, 2021 Abstract We argue that the Covid epidemic disproportionately a¤ected the economic well- being and health of poor people. To disentangle the forces that generated this outcome, we construct a model that is consistent with the heterogeneous impact of the Covid recession on low- and high-income people. According to our model, two thirds of the inequality in Covid deaths re‡ect pre-existing inequality in comorbidity rates and access to quality health care. The remaining third, stems from the fact that low-income people work in occupations where the risk of infection is high. Our model also implies that the rise in income inequality generated by the Covid epidemic re‡ects the nature of the goods that low-income people produce. Finally, we assess the health-income trade-o¤s associated with …scal transfers to the poor and mandatory containment policies. JEL Classi…cation: E1, I1, H0. Keywords: Epidemic, inequality, recession. We thank Laura Murphy and Federico Puglisi for excellent research assistance. yReplication codes are available on the authors’websites. zNorthwestern University and NBER. Address: Northwestern University, Department of Economics, 2211 Campus Dr, Evanston, IL 60208. USA. E-mail:
[email protected]. xNorthwestern University, NBER, and CEPR. Address: Northwestern University, Kellogg School of Man- agement, 2211 Campus Dr, Evanston, IL 60208. USA. E-mail:
[email protected]. {Goethe University Frankfurt, Theodor-W.-Adorno-Platz 3, 60323 Frankfurt am Main, Germany and Halle Institute for Economic Research (IWH), E-mail:
[email protected].