Dopad pandemie COVID-19 na spotřebu domácností ve Spojených státech amerických v roce 2020

The diploma thesis studies the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on consumption in the United States of America in 2020. Specifically, the thesis analyses the impact of the pandemic on various categories of goods and services. Furthermore, the thesis focuses on the differences in the impact of the pandemic on different social classes and it also analyses the effect of government restrictions on consumption. The comparative analysis showed significant changes in almost all consumption categories except for “Housing and energy cost” and “Financial services and insurance”. Using a relationship analysis between unemployment and consumption across different social classes it was discovered that the lower social classes were less severely affected by unemployment but at the same time, they reduced their consumption significantly less than the upper classes. Statistical analysis proved a significant negative impact of government restrictions on consumption. Linear regression first confirmed the negative correlation between the severity of the restrictions and the consumption and then using the method of difference in differences it was also possible to confirm a significant negative impact of the individual government restrictions.