Covid-19 and the Forces Behind Social Unrest

Rudolf Winter-Ebmer, Uwe Sunde and Mario Lackner

No 16756, CEPR Discussion Papers from C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers

Abstract: The unprecedented consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic have raised concerns about intensified social unrest, but evidence for such a link and the underlying channels is still lacking. We use a unique combination of nationally representative survey data, event data on social unrest, and data on Covid-19 fatalities and unemployment at a weekly resolution to investigate the forces behind social unrest in the context of the strains on public health and the economy due to the pandemic in the USA. The results show that pandemic-related unemployment and Covid-19 fatalities intensified negative emotional stress and led to a deterioration of economic confidence among individuals. The prevalence of negative emotional stress, particularly in economically strained and politically polarized environments, was, in turn, associated with intensified social unrest as measured by political protests. No such link is found for economic perceptions.

Keywords: Economic shocks; Covid-19; Civil unrest; Political polarization (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021-11
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://cepr.org/publications/DP16756 (application/pdf)
CEPR Discussion Papers are free to download for our researchers, subscribers and members. If you fall into one of these categories but have trouble downloading our papers, please contact us at subscribers@cepr.org

Related works:
Working Paper: Covid-19 and the Forces Behind Social Unrest (2021)
Working Paper: COVID-19 and the Forces behind Social Unrest (2021)
Working Paper: Covid-19 and the Forces Behind Social Unrest (2021)
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:cpr:ceprdp:16756

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
https://cepr.org/publications/DP16756

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in CEPR Discussion Papers from C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers Centre for Economic Policy Research, 33 Great Sutton Street, London EC1V 0DX.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ().