Economic Preferences and Compliance in the Social Stress Test of the Corona Crisis

Abstract

We test in a survey the impact of economic preferences on compliance and perception during the Corona pandemic. Results show that economic preferences crucially impact citizens' compliance to policies fighting the crisis. Risk tolerance negatively a↵ects citizens' avoidance of crowds, whereas patience helps to do so and to stay home. Present-biased subjects engage in panic buying. Risk tolerance is negatively related with the Corona threat and trust positively resonates with positive media perception. Exploiting data from before the crisis allows us to infer causality and to deduce valuable insights for crisis management by identifying target groups or regions for the allocation of scare medical or surveillance resources.

Prosociality predicts health behaviors during the COVID-19 pandemic

“…This literature shows that individual-level risk aversion, patience, and personality traits are all closely linked to health behaviors ( Galizzi and Wiesen, 2018 ). 4 In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, several contemporaneous papers examine the relation between health behaviors and self-reported risk and time preferences, trust, and personality ( Zettler et al, 2020 , Müller and Rau, 2020 , Briscese et al, 2020 , Thunström et al, forthcoming ). We add to the literature by showing that, beyond these factors, prosociality is an important and independent determinant of behaviors that are valuable for supporting public health.…”

Different Correlates of COVID-19-Related Adherent and Dysfunctional Safety Behavior

“…Furthermore, the authors reported rumors, safety-seeking behavior, uncertainty, anxiety reduction, and taking control, but also social learning and lacking trust in governmental actions to face the pandemic as reasons for panic buying [see also ( 11 )]. Müller and Rau ( 12 ) recently reported a link between present-bias and panic buying, while patience was associated to staying at home and avoiding crowds. On the other hand, the same study showed that all safety behaviors appear to be linked to fear, or at least COVID-19-related concern.…”

Prosociality Predicts Health Behaviors during the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…See Galizzi and Wiesen (2018) for a recent review of the literature linking experimentally and incentive compatible measures of preferences to health behaviors and Cawley and Ruhm (2011) for a review of the theoretical economic literature modelling risky health behaviors. In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, several contemporaneous papers examine the relation between health behaviors and self-reported risk and time preferences, trust, and personality (Zettler et al, 2020;Müller and Rau, 2020;Briscese et al, 2020;Thunström et al, 2020).…”