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Narrative Economics, Public Policy and Mental Health

Author

Listed:
  • Annie Tubadji

    (Swansea University)

  • Frédéric Boy

    (Swansea University
    University College London)

  • Don J. Webber

    (Sheffield University)

Abstract

General public’s mental health can be affected by the public policy response to a pandemic threat. Britain, Italy and Sweden have had very distinct approaches to the COVID-19 pandemic: early lock-down, delayed lock-down and no-lock-down. We develop a novel narrative economics of language Culture-Based Development approach, and using Google trend data for seed keywords, death and suicide, we reach two main conclusions: (i) while countries had a pre-existing culturally relative disposition towards death-related anxiety, the sensitivity to the public policy towards COVID-19 was also country specific; (ii) however, significant spillovers from one specific national lockdown public policy to another country’s mental health are identified.

Suggested Citation

  • Annie Tubadji & Frédéric Boy & Don J. Webber, 2023. "Narrative Economics, Public Policy and Mental Health," Applied Research in Quality of Life, Springer;International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies, vol. 18(1), pages 43-70, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:ariqol:v:18:y:2023:i:1:d:10.1007_s11482-022-10109-0
    DOI: 10.1007/s11482-022-10109-0
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