Social contact in a pandemic: Rationality vs. heuristics

Matthew Wilson

Research in Economics, 2023, vol. 77, issue 1, 159-177

Abstract: During the Covid pandemic, people weighed the benefits of social contact against the risks to their health. Ideally, people would respond based on the true infection rate; this is the rational model. However, there was high uncertainty, so perhaps people relied upon the heuristic model instead. I estimate revealed preferences for health and social contact at the county level and find evidence in favor of the heuristic model. This is important since many models of optimal policy assume that people respond to the true infection rate.

Keywords: Covid; Rationality; Heuristics; Revealed preferences (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D9 I1 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:reecon:v:77:y:2023:i:1:p:159-177

DOI: 10.1016/j.rie.2023.01.007

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