IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/aphecp/v18y2020i3d10.1007_s40258-020-00595-4.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Using Insights from Behavioral Economics to Mitigate the Spread of COVID-19

Author

Listed:
  • Moslem Soofi

    (Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences)

  • Farid Najafi

    (Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences)

  • Behzad Karami-Matin

    (Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences)

Abstract

The outbreak of 2019 coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has become a public health emergency of international concern. The number of COVID-infected individuals and related deaths continues to rise rapidly. Encouraging people to adopt and sustain preventive behaviors is a central focus of public health policies that seek to mitigate the spread of COVID-19. Public health policy needs improved methods to encourage people to adhere to COVID-19-preventive behaviors. In this paper, we introduce a number of insights from behavioral economics that help explain why people may behave irrationally during the COVID-19 pandemic. In particular, present bias, status quo bias, framing effect, optimism bias, affect heuristic, and herding behavior are discussed. We hope this paper will shed light on how insights from behavioral economics can enrich public health policies and interventions in the fight against COVID-19.

Suggested Citation

  • Moslem Soofi & Farid Najafi & Behzad Karami-Matin, 2020. "Using Insights from Behavioral Economics to Mitigate the Spread of COVID-19," Applied Health Economics and Health Policy, Springer, vol. 18(3), pages 345-350, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:aphecp:v:18:y:2020:i:3:d:10.1007_s40258-020-00595-4
    DOI: 10.1007/s40258-020-00595-4
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s40258-020-00595-4
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s40258-020-00595-4?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
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Reshmaan Hussam & Atonu Rabbani & Giovanni Reggiani & Natalia Rigol, 2017. "Habit Formation and Rational Addiction: A Field Experiment in Handwashing," Harvard Business School Working Papers 18-030, Harvard Business School.
    2. Coleman, Stephen, 2007. "The Minnesota Income Tax Compliance Experiment: Replication of the Social Norms Experiment," MPRA Paper 5820, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Blog mentions

    As found by EconAcademics.org, the blog aggregator for Economics research:
    1. Chris Sampson’s journal round-up for 1st June 2020
      by Chris Sampson in The Academic Health Economists' Blog on 2020-06-01 11:00:00

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Javier Cifuentes-Faura & Renaud Francesco, 2022. "Microeconomics of intertemporal choice in zero-space during Covid-19: a behavioral economics perspective," The European Journal of Health Economics, Springer;Deutsche Gesellschaft für Gesundheitsökonomie (DGGÖ), vol. 23(4), pages 559-563, June.
    2. Justin C Strickland & Derek D Reed & Steven R Hursh & Lindsay P Schwartz & Rachel N S Foster & Brett W Gelino & Robert S LeComte & Fernanda S Oda & Allyson R Salzer & Tadd D Schneider & Lauren Dayton , 2022. "Behavioral economic methods to inform infectious disease response: Prevention, testing, and vaccination in the COVID-19 pandemic," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 17(1), pages 1-25, January.
    3. Diego R. Toubes & Noelia Araújo-Vila & José A. Fraiz-Brea, 2021. "Organizational Learning Capacity and Sustainability Challenges in Times of Crisis: A Study on Tourism SMEs in Galicia (Spain)," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(21), pages 1-17, October.
    4. Srisathan, Wutthiya A. & Naruetharadhol, Phaninee, 2022. "A COVID-19 disruption: The great acceleration of digitally planned and transformed behaviors in Thailand," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 68(C).
    5. Kaplan, Sigal & Tchetchik, Anat & Greenberg, Doron & Sapir, Itsik, 2022. "Transit use reduction following COVID-19: The effect of threat appraisal, proactive coping and institutional trust," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 159(C), pages 338-356.
    6. Alaeddine Mihoub & Hosni Snoun & Moez Krichen & Montassar Kahia & Riadh Bel Hadj Salah, 2020. "Predicting COVID-19 Spread Level using Socio-Economic Indicators and Machine Learning Techniques," Post-Print hal-03002886, HAL.
    7. Kumar B, Pradeep, 2020. "Covid-19 Pandemic and the role of behavioral economics," MPRA Paper 107502, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    8. Sumeet Lal & Trinh Xuan Thi Nguyen & Abdul-Salam Sulemana & Mostafa Saidur Rahim Khan & Yoshihiko Kadoya, 2023. "Time Discounting and Hand-Sanitization Behavior: Evidence from Japan," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(8), pages 1-14, April.
    9. Kılıç, Hakan & Güneş, Evrim Didem, 2024. "Patient adherence in healthcare operations: A narrative review," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 91(C).
    10. Naseem Al Rahahleh & Ahmed Al Qurashi, 2024. "The impact of COVID-19 on Ethereum returns and Ethereum market efficiency," Eurasian Economic Review, Springer;Eurasia Business and Economics Society, vol. 14(3), pages 729-755, September.
    11. Lianbiao Cui & Xiao Li & Shimei Weng & Madalina Brutu & Umer Shahzad, 2024. "Economic Costs of Work Stoppages Caused by the COVID-19 Outbreak," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 15(3), pages 12026-12052, September.
    12. Blas A. Marin-Lopez & David Jimenez-Gomez & José-María Abellán-Perpiñán, 2022. "Behavioral Economics in the Epidemiology of the COVID-19 Pandemic: Theory and Simulations," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(15), pages 1-23, August.
    13. Xixiang Sun & Weihuan Su & Xiaodong Guo & Ziyuan Tian, 2021. "The Impact of Awe Induced by COVID-19 Pandemic on Green Consumption Behavior in China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(2), pages 1-14, January.
    14. Juan Luis Delgado-Gallegos & Gerardo R. Padilla-Rivas & Lilia Julieta Gastelum-Arias & Erika Zuñiga-Violante & Gener Avilés-Rodríguez & Daniel Arellanos-Soto & Héctor Franco-Villareal & Elsa N. Garza-, 2021. "Parent’s Perspective towards Child COVID-19 Vaccination: An Online Cross-Sectional Study in Mexico," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(1), pages 1-14, December.
    15. Javier Cifuentes-Faura & Renaud Di Francesco, 2022. "Nanoeconomics of Households in Lockdown Using Agent Models during COVID-19," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(4), pages 1-13, February.
    16. Erjavec, Jure & Manfreda, Anton, 2022. "Online shopping adoption during COVID-19 and social isolation: Extending the UTAUT model with herd behavior," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).

    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. Onur Altındağ & Jane Greve & Erdal Tekin, 2024. "Public Health Policy at Scale: Impact of a Government-Sponsored Information Campaign on Infant Mortality in Denmark," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 106(3), pages 882-893, May.
    2. Joshua Blumenstock & Michael Callen & Tarek Ghani, 2018. "Why Do Defaults Affect Behavior? Experimental Evidence from Afghanistan," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 108(10), pages 2868-2901, October.
    3. Castro, Lucio & Scartascini, Carlos, 2015. "Tax compliance and enforcement in the pampas evidence from a field experiment," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 116(C), pages 65-82.
    4. Kristina Czura & Andreas Menzel & Martina Miotto, 2019. "Menstrual Health, Worker Productivity and Well-being among Female Bangladeshi Garment Workers," CERGE-EI Working Papers wp649, The Center for Economic Research and Graduate Education - Economics Institute, Prague.
    5. Biddle, Nicholas & Fels, Katja M. & Sinning, Mathias, 2018. "Behavioral insights on business taxation: Evidence from two natural field experiments," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance, Elsevier, vol. 18(C), pages 30-49.
    6. Biddle, Nicholas & Fels, Katja & Sinning, Mathias, 2017. "Behavioral insights and business taxation: Evidence from two randomized controlled trials," Ruhr Economic Papers 698, RWI - Leibniz-Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung, Ruhr-University Bochum, TU Dortmund University, University of Duisburg-Essen.
    7. Jon Elster, 2017. "On seeing and being seen," Social Choice and Welfare, Springer;The Society for Social Choice and Welfare, vol. 49(3), pages 721-734, December.
    8. Ortega, Daniel & Scartascini, Carlos, 2015. "Don't Blame the Messenger: A Field Experiment on Delivery Methods for Increasing Tax Compliance," IDB Publications (Working Papers) 7284, Inter-American Development Bank.
    9. Alacevich, Caterina & Bonev, Petyo & Söderberg, Magnus, 2021. "Pro-environmental interventions and behavioral spillovers: Evidence from organic waste sorting in Sweden," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 108(C).
    10. John Beshears & Hae Nim Lee & Katherine L. Milkman & Robert Mislavsky & Jessica Wisdom, 2021. "Creating Exercise Habits Using Incentives: The Trade-off Between Flexibility and Routinization," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 67(7), pages 4139-4171, July.
    11. Martínez Villarreal, Déborah & Parilli, Cristina & Scartascini, Carlos & Simpser, Alberto, 2021. "Let's (Not) Get Together!: The Role of Social Norms in Social Distancing during COVID-19," IDB Publications (Working Papers) 11038, Inter-American Development Bank.
    12. Bott, Kristina Maria & Cappelen, Alexander W. & Sørensen, Erik Ø. & Tungodden, Bertil, 2017. "You’ve got mail: A randomised Field experiment on tax evasion," Discussion Paper Series in Economics 10/2017, Norwegian School of Economics, Department of Economics.
    13. Gong, Jie & Liu, Tracy Xiao & Tang, Jie, 2021. "How monetary incentives improve outcomes in MOOCs: Evidence from a field experiment," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 190(C), pages 905-921.
    14. Martinangeli, Andrea F.M. & Windsteiger, Lisa, 2024. "Inequality shapes the propagation of unethical behaviours: Cheating responses to tax evasion along the income distribution," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 220(C), pages 135-181.
    15. Peter John & Toby Blume, 2018. "How best to nudge taxpayers? The impact of message simplification and descriptive social norms on payment rates in a central London local authority," Journal of Behavioral Public Administration, Center for Experimental and Behavioral Public Administration, vol. 1(1).
    16. Daniel Ortega & Carlos Scartascini, 2015. "Don't Blame the Messenger: A Field Experiment on Delivery Methods for Increasing Tax Compliance," IDB Publications (Working Papers) 91741, Inter-American Development Bank.
    17. Regan, Mark & Keane, Claire & Walsh, John R, 2018. "Using behavioural experiments to pre-test policy," Papers BP2019/2, Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI).
    18. Coleman, Stephen, 2018. "Voting and conformity: Russia, 1993–2016," Mathematical Social Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 87-95.
    19. Fabian Dvorak & Urs Fischbacher & Katrin Schmelz, 2020. "Incentives for Conformity and Anticonformity," TWI Research Paper Series 122, Thurgauer Wirtschaftsinstitut, Universität Konstanz.
    20. Antonio Silva & Peter John, 2017. "Social norms don’t always work: An experiment to encourage more efficient fees collection for students," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 12(5), pages 1-9, May.

    More about this item

    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:spr:aphecp:v:18:y:2020:i:3:d:10.1007_s40258-020-00595-4. 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: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    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.