Be kind or take it on the chin? Political narratives, pandemics, and social distancing

Kartik Anand (), Prasanna Gai (), Edmund Lou () and Sherry X. Wu ()

No 528, National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR) Discussion Papers from National Institute of Economic and Social Research

Abstract: How does a political leader's messaging during a pandemic influence social distancing by citizens? We model the strategic choice of narrative in a beauty contest setting where the leader seeks to eliminate the disease. The leader's resolve to eliminate the disease affects her narrative in a non-linear way. A resolute leader adopts a highly partisan narrative that identifies strongly with her followers, albeit at the expense of her payoff, while an ambivalent leader with low resolve for eliminating the disease is less partisan. Our result speaks to the debate on the voluntary acceptance of limits to individual liberty during a pandemic.

Keywords: Beauty contests; pandemic; COVID-19; political narratives; leadership (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D7 D84 D91 H12 I12 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021-03
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-exp and nep-pol
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