Conditional Persistence? Historical Disease Exposure and Government Response to COVID-19
Abstract
In this paper, we investigate differences in government responses to the COVID-19
pandemic. Drawing on the theory of the Behavioral Immune System and the Parasite
Stress Theory, we hypothesize that a higher historical disease exposure leads to a
stricter government response to the pandemic, in particular during the first year which
was characterized by fundamental uncertainty. Our empirical analysis, using weekly
panel data for almost every country in the world, show that a higher historical disease
exposure is indeed related to a stronger response to disease dynamics, at least in the
first year of the pandemic. The pattern is the same for state-level containment policies
within the United States. Our results suggest that the persistence of historical legacies
may not be deterministic, but rather time-varying and conditional on circumstances.
Cultural norms may matter more in times of crisis and fundamental uncertainty
Publisher
University of Gothenburg
Other description
JEL Codes: I18, H12, Z18
Collections
Date
2023-08Author
Lindskog, Annika
Olsson, Ola
Keywords
COVID-19
cultural persistence
pathogen prevalence
containment policy
behavioral immune system
Publication type
report
ISSN
1403-2465
Series/Report no.
Working Papers in Economics
835
Language
eng