01952cas a2200229 a 4500 AALejournalIMF021298 230101c9999 xx r poo 0 0eng d 5.00 USD 9781513559179 1018-5941 BD-DhAAL BD-DhAAL COVID-19 and Inequality in Asia : Breaking the Vicious Cycle. Washington, D.C. : International Monetary Fund, 2020. 1 online resource (23 pages) IMF Working Papers <strong>Off-Campus Access:</strong> No User ID or Password Required <strong>On-Campus Access:</strong> No User ID or Password Required Electronic access restricted to authorized BRAC University faculty, staff and students The COVID-19 pandemic risks exacerbating inequality in Asia. High frequency labor surveys show that the pandemic is having particularly adverse effects on younger workers, women and people that are more vulnerable. Pandemics have been shown to increase inequalities. As a result, income inequality, which was already high and rising in Asia before the pandemic, is likely to rise further over the medium term, unless policies succeed in breaking this historical pattern. Many Asian governments have implemented significant fiscal policy measures to mitigate the pandemic's effect on the most vulnerable, with the impact depending on the initial coverage of safety nets, fiscal space, and degree of informality and digitalization. The paper includes model-based analysis which shows that policies targeted to where needs are greatest are effective in mitigating adverse distributional consequences and underpinning overall economic activity and virus containment. Mode of access: Internet IMF Working Papers; Working Paper ; No. 2020/217 Full text available on IMF http://elibrary.imf.org/view/journals/001/2020/217/001.2020.issue-217-en.xml IMF e-Library