The role of populations’ behavioral traits in policy-making during a global crisis: Worldwide evidence

Etienne Dagorn, Martina Dattilo () and Matthieu Pourieux
Additional contact information
Martina Dattilo: Department of Economics "S. Cognetti de Martiis" - UNITO - Università degli studi di Torino = University of Turin

Post-Print from HAL

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.

Keywords: COVID-19; Policy responses; Trust; Patience; Risk-taking; Altruism (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024-10
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-soc
Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://hal.science/hal-04679593v1
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Published in Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, 2024, 226, pp.106662. ⟨10.1016/j.jebo.2024.06.040⟩

Downloads: (external link)
https://hal.science/hal-04679593v1/document (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: The role of populations’ behavioral traits in policy-making during a global crisis: Worldwide evidence (2024)
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:hal:journl:hal-04679593

DOI: 10.1016/j.jebo.2024.06.040

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Post-Print from HAL
Bibliographic data for series maintained by CCSD ().