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Social punishment for breaching restrictions during the COVID‐19 pandemic

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  • Ryo Takahashi
  • Kenta Tanaka

Abstract

In response to the novel coronavirus outbreak, the Japanese government requested the temporary closure of businesses. Consequently, complying with restrictions came to be recognized as the social norm, and stores that continued with business as usual were seen as norm‐breakers. This study empirically investigates costly punishment behavior for stores' violation of restrictions and how this behavior changes when a decision‐maker receives information pertaining to contrasting norms, implicitly requiring the opposite response. By implementing joy‐of‐destruction minigames, we found that costly punishment behavior for norm‐breakers was significantly stimulated (by approximately 11%) but not increased when additional information was provided.

Suggested Citation

  • Ryo Takahashi & Kenta Tanaka, 2021. "Social punishment for breaching restrictions during the COVID‐19 pandemic," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 59(4), pages 1467-1482, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:ecinqu:v:59:y:2021:i:4:p:1467-1482
    DOI: 10.1111/ecin.13020
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    Cited by:

    1. Fazio, Andrea & Reggiani, Tommaso & Sabatini, Fabio, 2022. "The political cost of sanctions: Evidence from COVID-19," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 126(9), pages 872-878.
    2. Eiji Yamamura & Yoshiro Tsutsui & Fumio Ohtake, 2023. "Would Monetary Incentives to COVID-19 vaccination reduce motivation?," Papers 2311.11828, arXiv.org.
    3. OTA Rui & ITO Arata & SATO Masahiro & YANO Makoto, 2022. "Social Learning and Behavioral Change When Faced with the COVID-19 Pandemic: A big data analysis," Discussion papers 22065, Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI).
    4. Ryo Takahashi, 2022. "Gender differences in tolerance for women's opinions and the role of social norms," Working Papers 2123, Waseda University, Faculty of Political Science and Economics.

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