IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/arx/papers/2607.28378.html

Do Crises Increase Parochial Behavior? Evidence from Donations During Covid

Author

Listed:
  • Esteban Jaimovich
  • Sarah Smith
  • Derrick Xu

Abstract

Do people behave more favorably towards their in-group during a crisis? Defining in/out-groups by geography, we study donations to local versus non-local charities during the Covid pandemic. The evidence points to increased parochialism: We document a relative increase in donations to local charities and show that donors in high-Covid areas increased their local giving and became less responsive to international disasters. Increased local giving was most pronounced during the first year of the pandemic. Our interpretation is that greater parochialism in donations was due to heightened concern about the immediate impact of Covid at a time when localities were salient.

Suggested Citation

  • Esteban Jaimovich & Sarah Smith & Derrick Xu, 2026. "Do Crises Increase Parochial Behavior? Evidence from Donations During Covid," Papers 2607.28378, arXiv.org.
    • Handle: RePEc:arx:papers:2607.28378
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2607.28378
    File Function: Latest version
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Michal Bauer & Christopher Blattman & Julie Chytilová & Joseph Henrich & Edward Miguel & Tamar Mitts, 2016. "Can War Foster Cooperation?," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 30(3), pages 249-274, Summer.
    2. Méon, Pierre-Guillaume & Verwimp, Philip, 2022. "Pro-social behavior after a disaster: Evidence from a storm hitting an open-air festival," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 198(C), pages 493-510.
    3. Grimalda, Gianluca & Buchan, Nancy R. & Ozturk, Orgul G. & Pinate, Adriana C. & Urso, Giulia & Brewer, Marilynn B., 2021. "Exposure to COVID-19 is associated with increased altruism, particularly at the local level," Open Access Publications from Kiel Institute for the World Economy 248645, Kiel Institute for the World Economy.
    4. Aditi Bhatia & Diksha Laungani & Lynda Hyland & Anita Shrivastava Kashi, 2025. "Crisis or Contentment? A Mixed-Method Exploration of Psychosocial Factors Influencing Meaning in Life During Midlife," SAGE Open, , vol. 15(1), pages 21582440251, March.
    5. Adena, Maja & Harke, Julian, 2022. "COVID-19 and pro-sociality: How do donors respond to local pandemic severity, increased salience, and media coverage?," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 25(3), pages 824-844.
    6. Bartscher, Alina Kristin & Seitz, Sebastian & Siegloch, Sebastian & Slotwinski, Michaela & Wehrhöfer, Nils, 2021. "Social capital and the spread of covid-19: Insights from european countries," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 80(C).
    7. Angelo Romano & Matthias Sutter & James H. Liu & Toshio Yamagishi & Daniel Balliet, 2022. "Author Correction: National parochialism is ubiquitous across 42 nations around the world," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-1, December.
    8. Rudy Arthur & Hywel T P Williams, 2019. "The human geography of Twitter: Quantifying regional identity and inter-region communication in England and Wales," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 14(4), pages 1-14, April.
    9. Alexander W. Cappelen & Benjamin Enke & Bertil Tungodden, 2025. "Universalism: Global Evidence," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 115(1), pages 43-76, January.
    10. Benjamin Enke & Ricardo Rodríguez-Padilla & Florian Zimmermann, 2023. "Moral Universalism and the Structure of Ideology," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 90(4), pages 1934-1962.
    11. Bentzen, Jeanet Sinding, 2021. "In crisis, we pray: Religiosity and the COVID-19 pandemic," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 192(C), pages 541-583.
    12. Barrios, John M. & Benmelech, Efraim & Hochberg, Yael V. & Sapienza, Paola & Zingales, Luigi, 2021. "Civic capital and social distancing during the Covid-19 pandemic☆," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 193(C).
    13. Benjamin Enke, 2020. "Moral Values and Voting," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 128(10), pages 3679-3729.
    14. Schwirplies, Claudia, 2023. "Does additional demand for charitable aid increase giving? Evidence from Hurricane Sandy," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 209(C), pages 53-73.
    15. Kimberley Scharf & Sarah Smith & Mark Ottoni-Wilhelm, 2022. "Lift and Shift: The Effect of Fundraising Interventions in Charity Space and Time," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 14(3), pages 296-321, August.
    16. Aitor Calo-Blanco & Jaromír Kovářík & Friederike Mengel & José Gabriel Romero, 2017. "Natural disasters and indicators of social cohesion," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 12(6), pages 1-13, June.
    17. Filipe Campante & Emilio Depetris-Chauvin & Ruben Durante, 2024. "The Virus of Fear: The Political Impact of Ebola in the United States," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 16(1), pages 480-509, January.
    18. Borgonovi, Francesca & Andrieu, Elodie & Subramanian, S.V., 2021. "The evolution of the association between community level social capital and COVID-19 deaths and hospitalizations in the United States," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 278(C).
    19. Jeanet Sinding Bentzen, 2019. "Acts of God? Religiosity and Natural Disasters Across Subnational World Districts," The Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 129(622), pages 2295-2321.
    20. Tatyana Deryugina & Benjamin M. Marx, 2021. "Is the Supply of Charitable Donations Fixed? Evidence from Deadly Tornadoes," American Economic Review: Insights, American Economic Association, vol. 3(3), pages 383-398, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Serhan Cevik, 2024. "Good Will Hunting: Do Disasters Make Us More Charitable?," Annals of Economics and Finance, Society for AEF, vol. 25(1), pages 275-287, May.
    2. Xu, Derrick, 2026. "Only in my backyard: The effect of flood exposure on environmental behavior," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 137(C).
    3. Esteban Jaimovich, 2024. "The Intensive Margin of Altruism: Impact of Covid-19 on Charitable Giving in England and Wales," Working Papers 297, Red Nacional de Investigadores en Economía (RedNIE).
    4. Ross, Johannes & Kienle, Ann-Katrin & Nicklisch, Andreas, 2024. "Sharing the cake during a crisis: The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on intertemporal altruism and efficiency concerns," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 228(C).
    5. Méon, Pierre-Guillaume & Verwimp, Philip, 2022. "Pro-social behavior after a disaster: Evidence from a storm hitting an open-air festival," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 198(C), pages 493-510.
    6. Schwirplies, Claudia, 2023. "Does additional demand for charitable aid increase giving? Evidence from Hurricane Sandy," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 209(C), pages 53-73.
    7. Voigt, Stefan, 2022. "Determinant of Social Norms," ILE Working Paper Series 58, University of Hamburg, Institute of Law and Economics.
    8. Zwetelina Iliewa & Elisabeth Kempf & Oliver Spalt, 2025. "Corporate Actions as Moral Issues," CRC TR 224 Discussion Paper Series crctr224_2025_649v2, University of Bonn and University of Mannheim, Germany, revised Apr 2025.
    9. Castriota, Stefano & Rondinella, Sandro & Tonin, Mirco, 2023. "Does social capital matter? A study of hit-and-run in US counties," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 329(C).
    10. Kucuk, Merve & Ulubasoglu, Mehmet, 2024. "Paying income tax after a natural disaster," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 128(C).
    11. Margaryta Klymak & Andrew Kosenko & Oleg Korenok & Dariia Mykhailyshyna & Kathryn Vasilaky, 2025. "Charitable Giving in Wartime: Evidence from Ukraine’s War Fundraising," CSAE Working Paper Series 2025-04, Centre for the Study of African Economies, University of Oxford.
    12. Laliotis, Ioannis & Mourelatos, Evangelos & Lohtander, Joona, 2025. "Religiosity, attitudes toward science, and public health: Evidence from Finland," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 56(C).
    13. Zwetelina Iliewa & Elisabeth Kempf & Oliver Spalt, 2025. "Corporate Actions as Moral Issues," CESifo Working Paper Series 11854, CESifo.
    14. Bello, Piera & Rocco, Lorenzo, 2022. "Education and COVID-19 excess mortality," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 47(C).
    15. Fang, Ximeng & Freyer, Timo & Ho, Chui-Yee & Chen, Zihua & Goette, Lorenz, 2022. "Prosociality predicts individual behavior and collective outcomes in the COVID-19 pandemic," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 308(C).
    16. Cools, Angela, 2025. "Faith and philanthropy: Megachurch scandals and charitable giving," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 238(C).
    17. Boneva, Teodora & Andre, Peter & Chopra, Felix & Falk, Armin, 2021. "Fighting Climate Change: the Role of Norms, Preferences, and Moral Values," CEPR Discussion Papers 16343, Centre for Economic Policy Research.
    18. Karlan, Dean & Lowe, Matt & Osei, Robert & Osei-Akoto, Isaac & Roth, Benjamin N. & Udry, Christopher, 2026. "Social protection and social distancing during the pandemic: Mobile money transfers in Ghana," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 179(C).
    19. Rusch, Hannes, 2023. "The logic of human intergroup conflict:," Research Memorandum 014, Maastricht University, Graduate School of Business and Economics (GSBE).
    20. repec:ajt:wcinch:74583 is not listed on IDEAS
    21. Gilles Dufrénot & Ewen Gallic & Pierre Michel & Norgile Midopkè Bonou & Ségui Gnaba & Iness Slaoui, 2024. "Impact of socioeconomic determinants on the speed of epidemic diseases: a comparative analysis," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 76(4), pages 1089-1107.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:arx:papers:2607.28378. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: arXiv administrators (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://arxiv.org/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.