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Civil Liberties in Times of Crisis

Author

Listed:
  • Marcella Alsan
  • Luca Braghieri
  • Sarah Eichmeyer
  • Minjeong Joyce Kim
  • Stefanie Stantcheva
  • David Y. Yang

Abstract

We study people's willingness to trade off civil liberties for increased health security in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic by deploying representative surveys involving around 550,000 responses across 15 countries. We document significant heterogeneity across groups in willingness to sacrifice rights: citizens disadvantaged by income, education, or race are less willing to sacrifice rights than their more advantaged peers in every country. Leveraging naturally occurring variation and experimental approaches, we estimate a one standard deviation increase in health insecurity increases willingness to sacrifice civil liberties by 68–83 percent of the difference between the average Chinese and US citizen.

Suggested Citation

  • Marcella Alsan & Luca Braghieri & Sarah Eichmeyer & Minjeong Joyce Kim & Stefanie Stantcheva & David Y. Yang, 2023. "Civil Liberties in Times of Crisis," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 15(4), pages 389-421, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:aea:aejapp:v:15:y:2023:i:4:p:389-421
    DOI: 10.1257/app.20210736
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    Cited by:

    1. Martin Lange & Ole Monscheuer, 2022. "Spreading the disease: Protest in times of pandemics," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 31(12), pages 2664-2679, December.
    2. Monica Martinez‐Bravo & Carlos Sanz, 2025. "Trust and accountability in times of crisis," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 92(365), pages 230-258, January.
    3. Ferreira, João V. & Hanaki, Nobuyuki & Le Lec, Fabrice & Schokkaert, Erik & Tarroux, Benoît, 2025. "Freedom counts: Cross-country empirical evidence," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 176(C).
    4. Mello, Marco & Moscelli, Giuseppe, 2022. "Voting, contagion and the trade-off between public health and political rights: Quasi-experimental evidence from the Italian 2020 polls," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 200(C), pages 1025-1052.
    5. Yusuke Narita & Ayumi Sudo, 2021. "Curse of Democracy: Evidence from the 21st Century," Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers 2281R, Cowles Foundation for Research in Economics, Yale University, revised Aug 2021.
    6. Christoph Feldhaus & Lukas Reinhardt & Matthias Sutter, 2024. "Trump ante Portas: Political Polarization Undermines Rule-Following Behavior," Discussion Paper Series of the Max Planck Institute for Behavioral Economics 2024_15, Max Planck Institute for Behavioral Economics.
    7. Besley, Timothy & Dray, Sacha, 2023. "The political economy of lockdown: Does free media matter?," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    8. Chatruc,Marisol Rodriguez & Rozo Villarraga,Sandra Viviana, 2022. "Discrimination Toward Migrants During Crises," Policy Research Working Paper Series 10091, The World Bank.
    9. Fitzpatrick, Anne & Beg, Sabrin & Derksen, Laura & Karing, Anne & Kerwin, Jason & Lucas, Adrienne M. & Ordaz Reynoso, Natalia & Squires, Munir, 2021. "Health knowledge and non-pharmaceutical interventions during the Covid-19 pandemic in Africa," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 190(C), pages 33-53.
    10. Rodríguez Chatruc, Marisol & Rozo, Sandra, 2021. "Attitudes towards Migrants during Crisis Times," IDB Publications (Working Papers) 11326, Inter-American Development Bank.
    11. Ester Faia & Andreas Fuster & Vincenzo Pezone & Basit Zafar, 2024. "Biases in Information Selection and Processing: Survey Evidence from the Pandemic," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 106(3), pages 829-847, May.
    12. Borisova, Ekaterina & Ivanov, Denis, 2021. "Covid-19 vaccine efficacy and Russian public support for anti-pandemic measures," BOFIT Discussion Papers 09/2021, Bank of Finland, Institute for Economies in Transition.
    13. Lichand, Guilherme & Belchior, Carlos Alberto & Leal Neto, Onicio Batista & Cossi, João, 2022. "Association of COVID-19 Incidence and Mortality Rates With School Reopening in Brazil During the COVID-19 Pandemic," OSF Preprints rke36, Center for Open Science.
    14. Oliu-Barton, Miquel & Pradelski, Bary S.R., 2021. "Green zoning: An effective policy tool to tackle the Covid-19 pandemic," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 125(8), pages 981-986.
    15. Ferragina, Emanuele & Pasqualini, Marta & Ricchi, Ettore & Zola, Andrew, 2021. "Who cares about health and the economy through the Covid-19 pandemic? Longitudinally tracking changes and heterogeneity in people’s perceptions of risks," SocArXiv rv7e3, Center for Open Science.
    16. Tiago Correia & Karen Willis, 2022. "Applying critical realism to the COVID‐19 pandemic to improve management of future public health crises," International Journal of Health Planning and Management, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 37(2), pages 599-603, March.
    17. Graeber, Daniel & Meister, Lorenz & Poutvaara, Panu, 2024. "Restrictions to civil liberties in a pandemic and satisfaction with democracy," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 85(C).
    18. Nikolova, Milena & Popova, Olga, 2024. "Echoes of the past: The enduring impact of communism on contemporary freedom of speech values," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 227(C).
    19. Harell, Allison & Lieberman, Evan, 2021. "How information about race-based health disparities affects policy preferences: Evidence from a survey experiment about the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 277(C).
    20. Per L. Bylund & Mark D. Packard, 2021. "Separation of power and expertise: Evidence of the tyranny of experts in Sweden's COVID‐19 responses," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 87(4), pages 1300-1319, April.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • D12 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Consumer Economics: Empirical Analysis
    • D91 - Microeconomics - - Micro-Based Behavioral Economics - - - Role and Effects of Psychological, Emotional, Social, and Cognitive Factors on Decision Making
    • I12 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Health Behavior
    • I18 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Government Policy; Regulation; Public Health
    • K38 - Law and Economics - - Other Substantive Areas of Law - - - Human Rights Law; Gender Law; Animal Rights Law
    • O17 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Formal and Informal Sectors; Shadow Economy; Institutional Arrangements
    • P36 - Political Economy and Comparative Economic Systems - - Socialist Institutions and Their Transitions - - - Consumer Economics; Health; Education and Training; Welfare, Income, Wealth, and Poverty

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