Trust in Government and COVID-19 Preventive Behaviors

Yenny Guzman-Ruiz, Joshua Choe, Gerard F. Anderson and Antonio J. Trujillo
Additional contact information
Yenny Guzman-Ruiz: Department of Health Systems and Population Health, University of Washington, Seattle, US
Joshua Choe: The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, US
Gerard F. Anderson: Department of International Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, US
Antonio J. Trujillo: Department of International Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, US

Journal of Economic Analysis, 2025, vol. 4, issue 1, 150-169

Abstract: High levels of trust are positively correlated with increased collaboration, prosocial actions, and heightened adherence to preventive behaviors during the COVID-19 pandemic. Previous studies on trust during the pandemic have primarily focused on either cross-sectional data or its impact in conjunction with other related variables, such as political party affiliations or vaccine availability. In this study, we employed a national survey panel comprising data from 760 individuals interviewed at three intervals between July 2020 and January 2021. We used pooled datasets, panel datasets, and dependent variable lags to control for time-invariant unobservable variables and endogeneity. Our findings reveal that trust in government influences individuals’ behavior when they are requested to follow public interventions. Notably, trust in local government is associated with increased adherence to COVID-19 preventive behaviors, similar to the effect observed with an annual income exceeding $100,000.

Keywords: Trust; Preventive Behavior; COVID-19 pandemic; Health System; Non-pharmacological interventions. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.anserpress.org/journal/jea/4/1/94/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.anserpress.org/journal/jea/4/1/94 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bba:j00001:v:4:y:2025:i:1:p:150-169:d:352

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Economic Analysis is currently edited by Ramona Wang

More articles in Journal of Economic Analysis from Anser Press
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Ramona Wang ().