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Re-Thinking the Role of Government Information Intervention in the COVID-19 Pandemic: An Agent-Based Modeling Analysis

Author

Listed:
  • Yao Lu

    (Dong Fureng Economic and Social Development School, Wuhan University, Beijing 100010, China)

  • Zheng Ji

    (National School of Development, Southeast University, Nanjing 210000, China)

  • Xiaoqi Zhang

    (National School of Development, Southeast University, Nanjing 210000, China)

  • Yanqiao Zheng

    (School of Finance, Zhejiang University of Finance and Economics, Hangzhou 310018, China)

  • Han Liang

    (National School of Development, Southeast University, Nanjing 210000, China)

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic imposes new challenges on the capability of governments in intervening with the information dissemination and reducing the risk of infection outbreak. To reveal the complexity behind government intervention decision, we build a bi-layer network diffusion model for the information-disease dynamics that were intervened in and conduct a full space simulation to illustrate the trade-off faced by governments between information disclosing and blocking. The simulation results show that governments prioritize the accuracy of disclosed information over the disclosing speed when there is a high-level medical recognition of the virus and a high public health awareness, while, for the opposite situation, more strict information blocking is preferred. Furthermore, an unaccountable government tends to delay disclosing, a risk-averse government prefers a total blocking, and a low government credibility will discount the effect of information disclosing and aggravate the situation. These findings suggest that information intervention is indispensable for containing the outbreak of infectious disease, but its effectiveness depends on a complicated way on both external social/epidemic factors and the governments’ internal preferences and governance capability, for which more thorough investigations are needed in the future.

Suggested Citation

  • Yao Lu & Zheng Ji & Xiaoqi Zhang & Yanqiao Zheng & Han Liang, 2020. "Re-Thinking the Role of Government Information Intervention in the COVID-19 Pandemic: An Agent-Based Modeling Analysis," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(1), pages 1-17, December.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:18:y:2020:i:1:p:147-:d:469230
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Ying Lian & Yueting Zhou & Xueying Lian & Xuefan Dong, 2022. "Cyber violence caused by the disclosure of route information during the COVID-19 pandemic," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 9(1), pages 1-18, December.

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