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Rugged Individualism and Collective (In)action During the COVID-19 Pandemic

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  • Samuel Bazzi
  • Martin Fiszbein
  • Mesay Gebresilasse

Abstract

Rugged individualism—the combination of individualism and anti-statism—is a prominent feature of American culture with deep roots in the country’s history of frontier settlement. Today, rugged individualism is more prevalent in counties with greater total frontier experience (TFE) during the era of westward expansion. While individualism may be conducive to innovation, it can also undermine collective action, with potentially adverse social consequences. We show that America’s frontier culture hampered the response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Across U.S. counties, greater TFE is associated with less social distancing and mask use as well as weaker local government effort to control the virus. We argue that frontier culture lies at the root of several more proximate explanations for the weak collective response to public health risks, including a lack of civic duty, partisanship, and distrust in science.

Suggested Citation

  • Samuel Bazzi & Martin Fiszbein & Mesay Gebresilasse, 2020. "Rugged Individualism and Collective (In)action During the COVID-19 Pandemic," NBER Working Papers 27776, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:27776
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    Cited by:

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    3. Laura Alfaro & Ester Faia & Nora Lamersdorf & Farzad Saidi, 2022. "Health Externalities and Policy: The Role of Social Preferences," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 68(9), pages 6751-6761, September.
    4. Deopa, Neha & Fortunato, Piergiuseppe, 2021. "Coronagraben in Switzerland: Culture and social distancing in times of COVID-19," GLO Discussion Paper Series 857, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    5. Lindskog, Annika & Olsson, Ola, 2023. "Conditional Persistence? Historical Disease Exposure and Government Response to COVID-19," Working Papers in Economics 835, University of Gothenburg, Department of Economics.
    6. Besley, Timothy & Dray, Sacha, 2023. "The political economy of lockdown: Does free media matter?," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    7. Vincent Miozzi & Benjamin Powell, 2023. "The pre-pandemic political economy determinants of lockdown severity," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 197(1), pages 167-183, October.
    8. Kebin Deng & Zhong Ding & Xu Liu, 2023. "Clan loyalty and COVID‐19 diffusion: Evidence from China," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 32(4), pages 910-938, April.
    9. Ahmed Mushfiq Mobarak & Edward Miguel, 2022. "The Economics of the COVID-19 Pandemic in Poor Countries," Annual Review of Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 14(1), pages 253-285, August.
    10. Chen, Chinchih & Frey, Carl Benedikt & Presidente, Giorgio, 2021. "Culture and contagion: Individualism and compliance with COVID-19 policy," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 190(C), pages 191-200.
    11. 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.
    12. Berger, Allen N. & Karakaplan, Mustafa U. & Roman, Raluca A., 2023. "Whose bailout is it anyway? The roles of politics in PPP bailouts of small businesses vs. banks," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 56(C).
    13. Hadi Alizadeh & Ayyoob Sharifi & Safiyeh Damanbagh & Hadi Nazarnia & Mohammad Nazarnia, 2023. "Impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the social sphere and lessons for crisis management: a literature review," Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, Springer;International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, vol. 117(3), pages 2139-2164, July.
    14. Andor, Mark A. & Bauer, Thomas K. & Eßer, Jana & Schmidt, Christoph M. & Tomberg, Lukas, 2023. "Who Gets Vaccinated? Cognitive and Non-cognitive Predictors of Individual Behavior in Pandemics," IZA Discussion Papers 15897, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    15. Sharon Lamb & Marta Pagán-Ortiz & Sara Bonilla, 2021. "How to Provide Sexual Education: Lessons from a Pandemic on Masculinity, Individualism, and the Neoliberal Agenda," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(8), pages 1-15, April.
    16. Li Huang & Oliver Zhen Li & Baiqiang Wang & Zilong Zhang, 2022. "Individualism and the fight against COVID-19," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 9(1), pages 1-20, December.
    17. Shuguang Jiang & Qian Wei & Luyao Zhang, 2022. "Individualism Versus Collectivism and the Early-Stage Transmission of COVID-19," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 164(2), pages 791-821, November.
    18. Ming Liu & Haomin Wu & Bingxuan Lin & Jingxia Zhang, 2023. "A small global village: the effects of collectivist, tight and Confucian cultures on the spread of COVID-19," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 10(1), pages 1-9, December.
    19. Neha Deopa & Piergiuseppe Fortunato, 2021. "Coronagraben in Switzerland: culture and social distancing in times of COVID-19," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 34(4), pages 1355-1383, October.
    20. Bird, Matthew D. & Arispe, Samuel & Muñoz, Paula & Freier, Luisa Feline, 2023. "Trust, social protection, and compliance: Moral hazard in Latin America during the COVID-19 pandemic," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 206(C), pages 279-295.
    21. Koon, Adam D. & Mendenhall, Emily & Eich, Lori & Adams, Abby & Borus, Zach A., 2021. "A spectrum of (Dis)Belief: Coronavirus frames in a rural midwestern town in the United States," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 272(C).
    22. Glenn L. Furton, 2023. "The pox of politics: Troesken’s tradeoff reexamined," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 195(1), pages 169-191, April.

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    JEL classification:

    • H12 - Public Economics - - Structure and Scope of Government - - - Crisis Management
    • H23 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Externalities; Redistributive Effects; Environmental Taxes and Subsidies
    • H75 - Public Economics - - State and Local Government; Intergovernmental Relations - - - State and Local Government: Health, Education, and Welfare
    • I12 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Health Behavior
    • I18 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Government Policy; Regulation; Public Health
    • P16 - Political Economy and Comparative Economic Systems - - Capitalist Economies - - - Capitalist Institutions; Welfare State

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