IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ces/ceswps/_9121.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

A Matter of Trust? Political Trust and the Covid-19 Pandemic

Author

Listed:
  • Mohammad Reza Farzanegan
  • Hans Philipp Hofmann

Abstract

There is significant cross-country variation in Covid-19 fatalities worldwide. In this study, we analyze the relationship between political trust and fatalities of the Covid-19 pandemic. By performing a cross-country analysis and controlling for other determinants, we find that government trust is negatively associated with Covid-19 cases and deaths. Additionally, our findings suggest that risk communication, in the form of public information campaigns, only decreased Covid-19 cases and deaths in countries with high trust in government. We also find evidence that political trust decreases the risk of removing lockdown policies.

Suggested Citation

  • Mohammad Reza Farzanegan & Hans Philipp Hofmann, 2021. "A Matter of Trust? Political Trust and the Covid-19 Pandemic," CESifo Working Paper Series 9121, CESifo.
    • Handle: RePEc:ces:ceswps:_9121
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.cesifo.org/DocDL/cesifo1_wp9121.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Andrés Rodríguez‐Pose & Chiara Burlina, 2021. "Institutions and the uneven geography of the first wave of the COVID‐19 pandemic," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 61(4), pages 728-752, September.
    2. Lucas Bretschger & Elise Grieg & Paul J. J. Welfens & Tian Xiong, 2020. "COVID-19 infections and fatalities developments: empirical evidence for OECD countries and newly industrialized economies," International Economics and Economic Policy, Springer, vol. 17(4), pages 801-847, October.
    3. Bargain, Olivier & Aminjonov, Ulugbek, 2020. "Trust and compliance to public health policies in times of COVID-19," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 192(C).
    4. Elgar, Frank J. & Stefaniak, Anna & Wohl, Michael J.A., 2020. "The trouble with trust: Time-series analysis of social capital, income inequality, and COVID-19 deaths in 84 countries," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 263(C).
    5. Teun Terpstra, 2011. "Emotions, Trust, and Perceived Risk: Affective and Cognitive Routes to Flood Preparedness Behavior," Risk Analysis, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 31(10), pages 1658-1675, October.
    6. Viktor Stojkoski & Zoran Utkovski & Petar Jolakoski & Dragan Tevdovski & Ljupco Kocarev, 2020. "Correlates of the country differences in the infection and mortality rates during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic: Evidence from Bayesian model averaging," Papers 2004.07947, arXiv.org, revised Jan 2022.
    7. John Wildman, 2021. "COVID-19 and income inequality in OECD countries," The European Journal of Health Economics, Springer;Deutsche Gesellschaft für Gesundheitsökonomie (DGGÖ), vol. 22(3), pages 455-462, April.
    8. Mounir Amdaoud & Giuseppe Arcuri & Nadine Levratto, 2021. "Are regions equal in adversity? A spatial analysis of spread and dynamics of COVID-19 in Europe," The European Journal of Health Economics, Springer;Deutsche Gesellschaft für Gesundheitsökonomie (DGGÖ), vol. 22(4), pages 629-642, June.
    9. Mounir Amdaoud & Giuseppe Arcuri & Nadine Levratto, 2021. "Are regions equal in adversity? A spatial analysis of spread and dynamics of COVID-19 in Europe," The European Journal of Health Economics, Springer;Deutsche Gesellschaft für Gesundheitsökonomie (DGGÖ), vol. 22(4), pages 629-642, June.
    10. Ziqiang Han & Xiaoli Lu & Elisa I. Hörhager & Jubo Yan, 2017. "The effects of trust in government on earthquake survivors’ risk perception and preparedness in China," Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, Springer;International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, vol. 86(1), pages 437-452, March.
    11. Pitlik, Hans & Rode, Martin, 2017. "Individualistic values, institutional trust, and interventionist attitudes," Journal of Institutional Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 13(3), pages 575-598, September.
    12. Stephan Rompf & Clemens Kroneberg & Thomas Schlösser, 2017. "Institutional trust and the provision of public goods: When do individual costs matter? The case of recycling," Rationality and Society, , vol. 29(2), pages 160-178, May.
    13. Mohammad Reza Farzanegan & Mehdi Feizi & Hassan F. Gholipour, 2021. "Globalization and the Outbreak of COVID-19: An Empirical Analysis," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 14(3), pages 1-10, March.
    14. Hetherington, Marc J., 1998. "The Political Relevance of Political Trust," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 92(4), pages 791-808, December.
    15. Mohammad Reza Farzanegan, 2020. "Ageing Society and SARS-CoV-2 Mortality: Does the Healthcare Absorptive Capacity Matter?," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 13(11), pages 1-13, November.
    16. Easton, David, 1975. "A Re-assessment of the Concept of Political Support," British Journal of Political Science, Cambridge University Press, vol. 5(4), pages 435-457, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

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


    Cited by:

    1. Luisa Loiacono & Riccardo Puglisi & Leonzio Rizzo & Riccardo Secomandi, 2021. "Pandemic perception and regulation effectiveness: Evidence from the COVID-19," Working papers 104, Società Italiana di Economia Pubblica.
    2. Loiacono, Luisa & Puglisi, Riccardo & Rizzo, Leonzio & Secomandi, Riccardo, 2022. "Pandemic knowledge and regulation effectiveness: Evidence from COVID-19," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 50(3), pages 768-783.

    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. Gebka, Bartosz & Kanungo, Rama Prasad & Wildman, John, 2024. "The transition from COVID-19 infections to deaths: Do governance quality and corruption affect it?," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 46(2), pages 235-253.
    2. Joan Costa-i-Font & Cristina Vilaplana-Prieto, 2023. "Health System Trust and Compliance with Covid-19 Restrictions," CESifo Working Paper Series 10291, CESifo.
    3. Mauro Caselli & Andrea Fracasso & Sergio Scicchitano, 2022. "From the lockdown to the new normal: individual mobility and local labor market characteristics following the COVID-19 pandemic in Italy," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 35(4), pages 1517-1550, October.
    4. Rosina Moreno & Esther Vayá, 2023. ""Geographical distribution of the COVID-19 pandemic across waves in Spain"," IREA Working Papers 202301, University of Barcelona, Research Institute of Applied Economics, revised Jan 2023.
    5. Costa-Font, Joan & Vilaplana-Prieto, Cristina, 2023. "Trusting the health system and COVID 19 restriction compliance," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 118267, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    6. Costa-Font, Joan & Vilaplana-Prieto, Cristina, 2023. "Trusting the Health System and COVID 19 Restriction Compliance," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 49(C).
    7. Andrés Rodríguez‐Pose & Chiara Burlina, 2021. "Institutions and the uneven geography of the first wave of the COVID‐19 pandemic," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 61(4), pages 728-752, September.
    8. Stark, Oded, 2021. "Why reducing relative deprivation but not reducing income inequality might bring down COVID-19 infections," Journal of Government and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 4(C).
    9. Timothy Besley & Sacha Dray, 2022. "Trust as state capacity: The political economy of compliance," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2022-135, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    10. Joaquín Pérez-Ortega & Nelva Nely Almanza-Ortega & Kirvis Torres-Poveda & Gerardo Martínez-González & José Crispín Zavala-Díaz & Rodolfo Pazos-Rangel, 2022. "Application of Data Science for Cluster Analysis of COVID-19 Mortality According to Sociodemographic Factors at Municipal Level in Mexico," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 10(13), pages 1-16, June.
    11. Stark, Oded, 2023. "On a tendency in health economics to dwell on income inequality and underestimate social stress," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 49(C).
    12. Syed Abul Basher & A. K. Enamul Haque, 2021. "Public policy lessons from the Covid-19 outbreak: How to deal with it in the post-pandemic world?," Journal of Social and Economic Development, Springer;Institute for Social and Economic Change, vol. 23(2), pages 234-247, September.
    13. Anna Kern, 2017. "The Effect of Direct Democratic Participation on Citizens’ Political Attitudes in Switzerland: The Difference between Availability and Use," Politics and Governance, Cogitatio Press, vol. 5(2), pages 16-26.
    14. Rong Hu & Ivan Y. Sun & Yuning Wu, 2015. "Chinese Trust in the Police: The Impact of Political Efficacy and Participation," Social Science Quarterly, Southwestern Social Science Association, vol. 96(4), pages 1012-1026, December.
    15. Hamza Umer & Yanjun Li, 2024. "Positive and negative health events and trust," Empirica, Springer;Austrian Institute for Economic Research;Austrian Economic Association, vol. 51(2), pages 459-479, May.
    16. Newton, Kenneth, 2005. "Support for democracy: Social capital, civil society and political performance," Discussion Papers, Research Group Civil Society, Citizenship and Political Mobilization in Europe SP IV 2005-402, WZB Berlin Social Science Center.
    17. Irene González Rodríguez & Marta Pascual Sáez & David Cantarero Prieto, 2022. "The dynamics of COVID-19: An empirical analysis with a view to spatial health econometrics using macrodata," Working Papers. Collection B: Regional and sectoral economics 2201, Universidade de Vigo, GEN - Governance and Economics research Network.
    18. Eri Bertsou, 2019. "Political Distrust and its Discontents: Exploring the Meaning, Expression and Significance of Political Distrust," Societies, MDPI, vol. 9(4), pages 1-18, October.
    19. Chen, Chinchih & Frey, Carl Benedikt & Presidente, Giorgio, 2021. "Culture and contagion: Individualism and compliance with COVID-19 policy," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 190(C), pages 191-200.
    20. Xuemei Fang & Liang Cao & Luyi Zhang & Binbin Peng, 2023. "Risk perception and resistance behavior intention of residents living near chemical industry parks: an empirical analysis in China," Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, Springer;International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, vol. 115(2), pages 1655-1675, January.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Covid-19; pandemic; trust; lockdown; cross-country regression; voluntary compliance;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I12 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Health Behavior
    • I18 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Government Policy; Regulation; Public Health

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:ces:ceswps:_9121. 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: Klaus Wohlrabe (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/cesifde.html .

    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.