Financial situation of the Vologda oblast population in the context of the spread of coronavirus infection

Biological threats have a serious impact not only on health, but also on other sectors of the economy, production and consumption, and the overall well-being. The aim of the study is to assess the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the financial situation of the Russians and their consumer practices. The main focus is on the Vologda Oblast. Currently, researchers are focusing on the medical aspects of the pandemic and the overall socio-economic development of the world or individual territories. At the same time, there are practically no scientific papers that would analyze the impact of the pandemic on the standard of living, which justifies the scientific novelty of the study. Such methods as analysis, synthesis, abstraction, comparative analysis, and the method of sociological survey have been used. The empirical basis was the results of an online survey organized by the Vologda Research Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences (VolRC RAS) in May - June 2020 (N = 841). The sociological material analysis revealed that the crisis has worsened the financial situation of the region’s residents, while the economic consequences of the coronavirus outbreak affect primarily the poor. Negative trends in the financial position are largely due to the situation on the labor market, in particular, the unemployment rate increase during the pandemic, so there are alarming expectations in the regional society: the majority of respondents are afraid of losing their jobs as much as they are afraid of being down with coronavirus (68%). The socio-economic consequences of the pandemic and the deterioration of the financial situation lead to a transformation of consumer behavior strategies. This is, in particular, the growth of online purchases, as well as a change in the structure of consumer spending in favor of purchasing goods meeting basic human needs. Main directions of future research are identifying factors that influence the dynamics of financial situation during the pandemic; identifying “risk groups” (in addition to the poor); assessing the effectiveness of state social support measures in the context of the spread of coronavirus.