Loss of financial well-being in the COVID-19 pandemic: Does job stability make a difference?

This article aims to assess the loss of financial well-being in the COVID-19 pandemic. The developed theoretical model identifies the impacts of the perception of financial risk and financial anxiety on financial well-being. It also seeks, through a comparative analysis, to assess whether public servants, due to their status of job stability in Brazil, are less likely to have the effects of the pandemic than private employees.

A Pandemic Risk Perception Scale.

We propose a Pandemic Risk Perception Scale. Our scale comprises two constructs, Dread Risk and Personal Exposure, divided into five dimensions: Infection Risk, Emotional Health Risk, Health System Risk,Financial Risk, and Alimentary Risk. Using multidimensional item response theory, confirmatory factor analysis, and structural equation modeling on two samples of respondents, our results show that Alimentary Risk, Health System Risk, and Emotional Health Risk are the main dimensions of risk perception for the COVID-19 pandemic.