 The role of populations’ behavioral traits in policy-making during a global crisis: Worldwide evidenceEtienne Dagorn, Martina Dattilo and Matthieu Pourieux Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 2024, vol. 226, issue C Abstract: Substantial heterogeneity in behavioral traits has been observed across human societies, which have been linked to important differences in individual as well as societal outcomes. In this paper, we complement the existing literature by investigating the role of key behavioral traits, i.e. risk-taking, patience, altruism, and trust, at the population level in the design of new policies and institutions during an unexpected global crisis. Combining granular data on policy responses to the COVID-19 crisis with several pre-pandemic survey measures of behavioral traits in 109 countries, we observe robust relationships of significant magnitude. In particular, our findings underline that countries with higher levels of trust tended to respond later to the crisis; while populations that are patient, altruistic, and trusting are more likely to implement stringent policies in the medium and long-term. These results improve our understanding of how countries deal with global crises. They also supply an explanation for the lack of coordinated response at the international level during such events. Date: 2024 Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jeborg:v:226:y:2024:i:c:s0167268124002580 DOI: 10.1016/j.jebo.2024.06.040 Access Statistics for this article Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization is currently edited by Houser, D. and Puzzello, D. More articles in Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization from Elsevier |
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