IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/beexfi/v43y2024ics2214635024000558.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Financial worry and government responses to the COVID-19 pandemic in 88 Countries: Did public confidence in National Governments matter?

Author

Listed:
  • Beckles, Jamila
  • Jackman, Mahalia

Abstract

During the COVID-19 pandemic, governments implemented various measures to control the spread of the virus, enhance healthcare systems, and mitigate the economic impact of these actions. In this study, we investigate how government responses to COVID-19, in terms of stringency and economic support, affected individuals' financial worries in 88 economies. We also investigate how the relationship between these variables was affected by the public’s confidence in the government. Our results suggest that greater stringency was associated with increased financial worry, irrespective of public trust in the government. Meanwhile, the impact of economic support policies varied with the level of public trust in the government. In countries where citizens reported high levels of confidence in their government, economic support to households helped to alleviate financial worry. In countries with low confidence levels, the support policies had no statistically significant impact.

Suggested Citation

  • Beckles, Jamila & Jackman, Mahalia, 2024. "Financial worry and government responses to the COVID-19 pandemic in 88 Countries: Did public confidence in National Governments matter?," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance, Elsevier, vol. 43(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:beexfi:v:43:y:2024:i:c:s2214635024000558
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jbef.2024.100940
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2214635024000558
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jbef.2024.100940?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Alhassan Abdul-Wakeel Karakara & Joshua Sebu & Isaac Dasmani, 2021. "Financial literacy, financial distress and socioeconomic characteristics of individuals in Ghana," African Journal of Economic and Management Studies, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 13(1), pages 29-48, October.
    2. Thomas Hale & Noam Angrist & Rafael Goldszmidt & Beatriz Kira & Anna Petherick & Toby Phillips & Samuel Webster & Emily Cameron-Blake & Laura Hallas & Saptarshi Majumdar & Helen Tatlow, 2021. "A global panel database of pandemic policies (Oxford COVID-19 Government Response Tracker)," Nature Human Behaviour, Nature, vol. 5(4), pages 529-538, April.
    3. Ashraf, Badar Nadeem & Goodell, John W., 2022. "COVID-19 social distancing measures and economic growth: Distinguishing short- and long-term effects," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 47(PA).
    4. de Bruijn, Ernst-Jan & Antonides, Gerrit, 2020. "Determinants of financial worry and rumination," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).
    5. Ashraf, Badar Nadeem, 2020. "Economic impact of government interventions during the COVID-19 pandemic: International evidence from financial markets," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance, Elsevier, vol. 27(C).
    6. Sabrina Wulff Pabilonia & Victoria Vernon, 2023. "Who is doing the chores and childcare in dual-earner couples during the COVID-19 era of working from home?," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 21(2), pages 519-565, June.
    7. Barrafrem, Kinga & Tinghög, Gustav & Västfjäll, Daniel, 2021. "Trust in the government increases financial well-being and general well-being during COVID-19," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance, Elsevier, vol. 31(C).
    8. Michele Roccato & Pasquale Colloca & Nicoletta Cavazza & Silvia Russo, 2021. "Coping with the COVID‐19 pandemic through institutional trust: Rally effects, compensatory control, and emotions," Social Science Quarterly, Southwestern Social Science Association, vol. 102(5), pages 2360-2367, September.
    9. Soomin Ryu & Lu Fan, 2023. "The Relationship Between Financial Worries and Psychological Distress Among U.S. Adults," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 44(1), pages 16-33, March.
    10. Louis Tay & Cassondra Batz & Scott Parrigon & Lauren Kuykendall, 2017. "Debt and Subjective Well-being: The Other Side of the Income-Happiness Coin," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 18(3), pages 903-937, June.
    11. Ann Owen & Stephen Wu, 2007. "Financial shocks and worry about the future," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 33(3), pages 515-530, November.
    12. Frank M. Magwegwe & Maurice M. MacDonald & HanNa Lim & Stuart J. Heckman, 2023. "Determinants of financial worry," Journal of Consumer Affairs, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 57(1), pages 171-221, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Guerrero, David & Letrouit, Lucie & Pais-Montes, Carlos, 2022. "The container transport system during Covid-19: An analysis through the prism of complex networks," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 115(C), pages 113-125.
    2. Toan Luu Duc Huynh & Duy Duong, 2022. "Government responses, democracy, and COVID-19 containment: a cross-country study," Economics and Business Letters, Oviedo University Press, vol. 11(3), pages 98-106.
    3. Kubinec, Robert & Barceló, Joan & Goldszmidt, Rafael & Grujic, Vanja, 2021. "Cross-National Measures of the Intensity of COVID-19 Public Health Policies," SocArXiv rn9xk_v1, Center for Open Science.
    4. Cevat Giray Aksoy & Jose Maria Barrero & Nicholas Bloom & Steven J. Davis & Mathias Dolls & Pablo Zarate, 2022. "Working from Home Around the World," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 53(2 (Fall)), pages 281-360.
    5. Jing Jian Xiao & Kyoung Tae Kim, 2022. "The Able Worry More? Debt Delinquency, Financial Capability, and Financial Stress," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 43(1), pages 138-152, March.
    6. Omrane Guedhami & April Knill & William L. Megginson & Lemma W. Senbet, 2022. "The dark side of globalization: Evidence from the impact of COVID-19 on multinational companies," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 53(8), pages 1603-1640, October.
    7. Gu, Tiantian & Venkateswaran, Anand & Erath, Marc, 2023. "Impact of fiscal stimulus on volatility: A cross-country analysis," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).
    8. Gangopadhyay, Partha & Das, Narasingha & Kumar, Satish & Tanin, Tauhidul Islam, 2024. "Information warfare: Analyzing COVID-19 news and its economic fallout in the US," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 70(PB).
    9. Kubinec, Robert & Barceló, Joan & Goldszmidt, Rafael & Grujic, Vanja & Model, Timothy & Schenk, Caress & Cheng, Cindy & Hale, Thomas & Hartnett, Allison Spencer & Messerschmidt, Luca, 2021. "Statistically Validated Indices for COVID-19 Public Health Policies," SocArXiv rn9xk, Center for Open Science.
    10. Lizheng Ma & Congzhi Zhang & Kai Lisa Lo & Xiangyan Meng, 2023. "Can Stringent Government Initiatives Lead to Global Economic Recovery Rapidly during the COVID-19 Epidemic?," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(6), pages 1-16, March.
    11. Ratan J. S. Dheer & Carolyn P. Egri & Len J. Treviño, 2021. "A cross-cultural exploratory analysis of pandemic growth: The case of COVID-19," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 52(9), pages 1871-1892, December.
    12. Cevat Giray Aksoy & Jose Maria Barrero & Nicholas Bloom & Steven J. Davis & Mathias Dolls & Pablo Zarate, 2022. "Working from Home Around the World," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 53(2 (Fall)), pages 281-360.
    13. Văn, Lê & Bảo, Nguyễn Khắc Quốc, 2022. "The relationship between global stock and precious metals under Covid-19 and happiness perspectives," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 77(C).
    14. Arian Daneshmanda & Ali Mazyaki & Mohammad Reza Farzanegan & Mohammad Javad Gheidari, 2024. "Optimizing Social Assistance Strategies in Response to the COVID-19 Crisis," MAGKS Papers on Economics 202422, Philipps-Universität Marburg, Faculty of Business Administration and Economics, Department of Economics (Volkswirtschaftliche Abteilung).
    15. Kleimeier, Stefanie & Hoffmann, Arvid O.I. & Broihanne, Marie-Hélène & Plotkina, Daria & Göritz, Anja S., 2023. "Determinants of individuals’ objective and subjective financial fragility during the COVID-19 pandemic," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 153(C).
    16. Marlon Fritz & Thomas Gries & Margarete Redlin, 2023. "The effectiveness of vaccination, testing, and lockdown strategies against COVID-19," International Journal of Health Economics and Management, Springer, vol. 23(4), pages 585-607, December.
    17. Rouatbi, Wael & Demir, Ender & Kizys, Renatas & Zaremba, Adam, 2021. "Immunizing markets against the pandemic: COVID-19 vaccinations and stock volatility around the world," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 77(C).
    18. Boubaker, Sabri & Goodell, John W. & Kumar, Satish & Sureka, Riya, 2023. "COVID-19 and finance scholarship: A systematic and bibliometric analysis," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 85(C).
    19. Bongiovanni, Alessio & Fiandrino, Simona, 2024. "Does firm environmental performance mitigate the market reaction to COVID-19 uncertainty?," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 68(C).
    20. Berlinger, Edina & Gramlich, Dieter & Walker, Thomas & Zhao, Yunfei, 2024. "Governmental responses and firm resilience during the COVID-19 pandemic: The role of culture and politics," Economic Systems, Elsevier, vol. 48(3).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Public confidence in government; Financial worry; Financial anxiety; COVID-19; Public trust; Government responses to COVID-19; Multilevel models;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D14 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Household Saving; Personal Finance
    • G40 - Financial Economics - - Behavioral Finance - - - General
    • G50 - Financial Economics - - Household Finance - - - General
    • I38 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - Government Programs; Provision and Effects of Welfare Programs
    • I31 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - General Welfare, Well-Being

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:beexfi:v:43:y:2024:i:c:s2214635024000558. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.journals.elsevier.com/journal-of-behavioral-and-experimental-finance .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.