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How confidence in health care systems affects mobility and compliance during the COVID-19 pandemic

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Listed:
  • Ho Fai Chan
  • Martin Brumpton
  • Alison Macintyre
  • Jefferson Arapoc
  • David A. Savage
  • Ahmed Skali
  • David Stadelmann
  • Benno Torgler

Abstract

Trust in the health care system requires being confident that suffic ient and appropriate treatments will be provided if needed. The CO VID-19 public health crisis is a significant, global, and (mostly) simultaneous test of the behav ioral implications arising from this trust. We explore whether populations reporting low l evels of confidence in the health care system exhibit a stronger behavioral reaction to th e COVID-19 pandemic. We track the dynamic responses to the COVID-19 pandemic across 38 countries and 621 regions by exploiting a large dataset on human mobility generated between February 15 and June 5, 2020 and a broad range of contextual factors (e.g. deaths or policy implementations). Using a time-dynamic framework we find that societies with low level s of health care confid ence initially exhibit a faster response with respect to staying home. However, this reaction plateaus sooner, and after the plateau it declines with greater magnitude than does the response from societies with high health care confidence. On the other hand, regions with higher confidence in the health care system are more likely to reduce mobility once the government mandates that its citizens are not to leave home except for essen tial trips, compared to those with lower health care system confidence. Regions with high trust in the govern ment but low confidence in the health care system dramatically reduce their mobility, sugges ting a correlation for trust in the state with respect to behavioral responses during a crisis.

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  • Ho Fai Chan & Martin Brumpton & Alison Macintyre & Jefferson Arapoc & David A. Savage & Ahmed Skali & David Stadelmann & Benno Torgler, 2020. "How confidence in health care systems affects mobility and compliance during the COVID-19 pandemic," CREMA Working Paper Series 2020-11, Center for Research in Economics, Management and the Arts (CREMA).
  • Handle: RePEc:cra:wpaper:2020-11
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    1. Wright, Austin L. & Sonin, Konstantin & Driscoll, Jesse & Wilson, Jarnickae, 2020. "Poverty and economic dislocation reduce compliance with COVID-19 shelter-in-place protocols," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 180(C), pages 544-554.
    2. Alfano, Vincenzo, 2023. "God or good health? Evidence on belief in God in relation to public health during a pandemic," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 107(C).
    3. Gizell Green & Riki Tesler, 2023. "Trust in Health Care Providers, Anxiety, Knowledge, Adherence to Guidelines, and Mental Healthcare Needs Regarding the COVID-19 Pandemic," SAGE Open, , vol. 13(2), pages 21582440231, June.
    4. Sarracino, Francesco & Greyling, Talita & O'Connor, Kelsey J. & Peroni, Chiara & Rossouw, Stephanie, 2024. "Trust predicts compliance with COVID-19 containment policies: Evidence from ten countries using big data," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 54(C).
    5. Martins Priedols & Girts Dimdins & Viktorija Gaina & Veronika Leja & Ivars Austers, 2022. "Political Trust and the Ultimate Attribution Error in Explaining Successful and Failed Policy Initiatives," SAGE Open, , vol. 12(2), pages 21582440221, June.
    6. Olga Amberger & Angelina Müller & Dorothea Lemke & Hardy Müller & David Schwappach & Peter Wendt & Michel Wensing & Maria-Sophie Brueckle & Beate S. Müller, 2022. "Patient Safety and the COVID-19 Pandemic in Germany: A Repeated Population-Based Cross-Sectional Survey," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(1), pages 1-12, December.
    7. Liana R Woskie & Jonathan Hennessy & Valeria Espinosa & Thomas C Tsai & Swapnil Vispute & Benjamin H Jacobson & Ciro Cattuto & Laetitia Gauvin & Michele Tizzoni & Alex Fabrikant & Krishna Gadepalli & , 2021. "Early social distancing policies in Europe, changes in mobility & COVID-19 case trajectories: Insights from Spring 2020," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 16(6), pages 1-12, June.
    8. Henrike Sternberg & Janina Isabel Steinert & Tim Büthe, 2024. "Compliance in the public versus the private realm: Economic preferences, institutional trust and COVID‐19 health behaviors," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 33(5), pages 1055-1119, May.
    9. Frank Daumann & Florian Follert & Werner Gleißner & Endre Kamarás & Chantal Naumann, 2021. "Political Decision Making in the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Case of Germany from the Perspective of Risk Management," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(1), pages 1-23, December.
    10. Anastasios Papanastasiou & Bradley J. Ruffle & Angela Zheng, 2022. "Compliance with social distancing: Theory and empirical evidence from Ontario during COVID‐19," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 55(S1), pages 705-734, February.
    11. Francesco Sarracino & Talita Greyling & Kelsey J. O'Connor & Chiara Peroni & Stephanie Rossouw, 2021. "Trust predicts compliance to Covid-19 containment policies: evidence from ten countries using big data," Department of Economics University of Siena 858, Department of Economics, University of Siena.
    12. Boffardi, Raffaele, 2022. "How efficient is the Italian health system? Evidence on the role of political-institutional dynamics," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).
    13. Farzanegan, Mohammad Reza & Gholipour, Hassan F., 2023. "COVID-19 fatalities and internal conflict: Does government economic support matter?," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    14. Bayu Begashaw Bekele & Bahaa Aldin Alhaffar & Rahul Naresh Wasnik & János Sándor, 2022. "The Effect of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the Social Inequalities of Health Care Use in Hungary: A Nationally Representative Cross-Sectional Study," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(4), pages 1-16, February.
    15. Vincenzo Alfano, 2022. "Does social capital enforce social distancing? The role of bridging and bonding social capital in the evolution of the pandemic," Economia Politica: Journal of Analytical and Institutional Economics, Springer;Fondazione Edison, vol. 39(3), pages 839-859, October.
    16. Anna Petherick & Rafael Goldszmidt & Eduardo B. Andrade & Rodrigo Furst & Thomas Hale & Annalena Pott & Andrew Wood, 2021. "A worldwide assessment of changes in adherence to COVID-19 protective behaviours and hypothesized pandemic fatigue," Nature Human Behaviour, Nature, vol. 5(9), pages 1145-1160, September.
    17. Mehran Alijanzadeh & Daniel Kwasi Ahorsu & Zainab Alimoradi & Narges Mahmoudi & Mark D. Griffiths & Chung-Ying Lin & Hsien-Kuan Liu & Amir H. Pakpour, 2021. "Fear of COVID-19 and Trust in the Healthcare System Mediates the Association between Individual’s Risk Perception and Preventive COVID-19 Behaviours among Iranians," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(22), pages 1-9, November.
    18. Vincenzo Alfano & Salvatore Ercolano, 2022. "Stay at Home! Governance Quality and Effectiveness of Lockdown," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 159(1), pages 101-123, January.
    19. Nicolás Bronfman & Paula Repetto & Paola Cordón & Javiera Castañeda & Pamela Cisternas, 2021. "Gender Differences on Psychosocial Factors Affecting COVID-19 Preventive Behaviors," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(11), pages 1-12, May.
    20. Benno Torgler, 2021. "Behavioral Taxation: Opportunities and Challenges," CREMA Working Paper Series 2021-25, Center for Research in Economics, Management and the Arts (CREMA).
    21. Ronja Demel & Francesco Grassi & Yasaman Rafiee & Michael R. Waldmann & Annekathrin Schacht, 2022. "How German and Italian Laypeople Reason about Distributive Shortages during COVID-19," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(19), pages 1-18, September.
    22. Trisha Harjani & Hongwei He & Melody Manchi Chao, 2024. "The Moral Foundations of Vaccine Passports," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 190(1), pages 93-121, February.
    23. Alfano, Vincenzo & Ercolano, Salvatore & Pinto, Mauro, 2022. "Carrot and stick: Economic support and stringency policies in response to COVID-19," Evaluation and Program Planning, Elsevier, vol. 94(C).
    24. Steve J. Bickley & Alison Macintyre & Benno Torgler, 2021. "Safety in Smart, Livable Cities: Acknowledging the Human Factor," CREMA Working Paper Series 2021-17, Center for Research in Economics, Management and the Arts (CREMA).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Trust; Health Care; Health Behavior; Covid-19;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I20 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - General
    • I18 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Government Policy; Regulation; Public Health

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