The impact of COVID-19 on the consumers’ behaviour: The case of Republic of Kosovo economy

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Abstract

The main aim of this paper is to analyze the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on personal consumption expenditures (PCE) in the case of Kosovo. Labor factor has been considered as the holder of the economic activity, however, manpower, namely its broader term population is at the same time the user of the product and the services, i.e., the result of the economic activity (Škuflić & Šokčević, 2010) Taking into consideration that COVID-19 is harming the labor market and in economic activity in general, we also consider that this situation is affecting the personal consumption expenditures in case of Kosovo, domestic demand, supported by low-interest rates and strong employment growth, will remain the main driver of growth (OECD, 2018). To analyze the importance of personal consumption expenditure in the case of Kosovo during the COVID-19 pandemic we used secondary data from World Bank documents and primary data collected via an online questionnaire that was randomly distributed using social media with a sample of 233 respondents. The data analysis concludes descriptive statistics, frequency tables and charts, Pearson correlation, Cronbach’s alpha, and Chi-square test. To conduct the results, the SPSS program is used. The study concludes that the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted personal consumption expenditures and shifted the consumption from luxury to essential products. The study also concludes that citizens will realize the pre-planned expenditures as soon as the anti-COVID-19 measures will be released.

Keywords: COVID-19 Pandemic, Personal Consumption Expenditures, Republic of Kosovo, Economic Growth

Authors’ individual contribution: Conceptualization — B.Z., D.R., and R.G.; Methodology — B.Z., D.R., and R.G.; Data Curation — B.Z., D.R., and R.G.; Writing — Original Draft — B.Z., D.R., and R.G.; Writing — Review & Editing — B.Z., D.R., and R.G.

Declaration of conflicting interests: The Authors declare that there is no conflict of interest.

JEL Classification: B22, B23

Received: 17.01.2021
Accepted: 29.03.2021
Published online: 30.03.2021

How to cite this paper: Ziberi, B., Rexha, D., & Gashi, R. (2021). The impact of COVID-19 on the consumers’ behaviour: The case of Republic of Kosovo economy. Journal of Governance & Regulation, 10(2), 20–33. https://doi.org/10.22495/jgrv10i2art2