How has COVID changed consumer purchasing behaviour of durable goods

This thesis investigates how the COVID-19 pandemic reshaped consumers’ purchase timing of durable goods (housing, vehicles, and big-ticket items). Using microdata from 7,501 respondents across Italy, Germany, France, Spain, and the Netherlands (June 2020), of whom 2,062 reported pre-pandemic intentions to purchase a durable good within 12 months, and it has been constructed linear probability models to explain plan chnages. The empirical strategy treats the pandemic as an exogenous shock and decomposes channels into: direct exposure to COVID-19 (self or close contact infected), and psychological/economic perceptions captured by fear of job loss and financial concerns about COVID-19. Models include demographic and socio-economic controls (gender, age, income, education) and country fixed effects. Three core results emerge. First, direct COVID-19 exposure is associated with a higher likelihood of changing purchasing plans (≈+11 p.p.), but this direct effect becomes statistically insignificant once fear variables are introduced, indicating that perceived risks, rather than infection per se, drive behaviour. Second, fear of job loss is the most powerful predictor of postponement, while financial concern about COVID-19 also raises the probability of plan changes, especially at high levels of concern. Third, effects are heterogeneous across goods: postponement of housing is primarily linked to heightened pandemic-related financial uncertainty; vehicle purchases are particularly sensitive to COVID-related fears that reduce the immediate utility of mobility; and big-ticket items display mixed patterns. Among controls, income is the strongest stabilizer (higher-income households are markedly less likely to revise plans); gender differences persist (women are more likely to change plans), while age effects are largely mediated by income. The study contributes by disentangling direct health shocks from fear-based channels in durable-goods timing decisions and by documenting category-specific heterogeneity. Findings suggest that policies reducing employment uncertainty and protecting household liquidity can dampen instability in durable-goods markets during crises. Limitations include reliance on self-reported intentions and a single survey wave; future work could exploit panel designs and administrative transactions to track persistence.