Inequality During Covid-19 Pandemic: Evidence From Mobile App Consumptions In Korea

Abstract

Covid-19 is the first human pandemic in the 21st century. It has brought changes to nearly every aspect of our lives. Leveraging on a proprietary dataset, which records the weekly app usage behaviors of a sample of consumers in Korea from January to August 2020, we study the impact of covid-19 on digital behaviors. We compare app consumptions at different phases of covid-19 (i.e., prepandemic, during 1st wave, recovery from 1st wave and post-1st wave), and find significant behavioral changes. We find some of them revert to normal quickly while others not. We then zoom in on how such behavioral responses to covid-19 differ across different app categories and demographic groups. We aim to explore how income, gender, education and digital literacy play a role during the pandemic. These findings can inform policy recommendations such as government subsidy strategies under natural disasters, as well as managers interested in increasing digital adoption of mobile apps