Determinants of individuals' objective and subjective financial fragility during the COVID-19 pandemic.

We examine determinants of the objective and subjective financial fragility of 2100 individuals across Australia, France, Germany, and South Africa during the COVID-19 pandemic. Objective financial fragility reflects individuals' (in)ability to deal with unexpected expenses, while subjective financial fragility reflects their emotional response to financial demands. Controlling for an extensive set of socio-demographics, we find that negative personal experiences during the pandemic (i.e., reduced or lost employment; COVID-19 infection) are associated with higher objective and subjective financial fragility. However, individuals' cognitive (i.e., financial literacy) as well as non-cognitive abilities (i.e., internal locus of control; psychological resilience) help to counteract this higher financial fragility. Finally, we examine the role of government financial support (i.e., income support; debt relief) and find that it is negatively related to financial fragility only for the economically weakest households. Our results have implications for public policymakers, providing levers for reducing individuals' objective and subjective financial fragility.

Differences in and drivers of mental, social, functional, and financial well-being during COVID-19: Evidence from Australia, France, Germany, and South Africa.

COVID-19 has a substantial and unexpected impact on individuals' daily life around the world. Unprecedented public health restrictions such as lockdowns have the potential to affect multiple dimensions of individuals' well-being, while the severity of such restrictions varies across countries. However, a holistic perspective comparing differences in and drivers of the different dimensions of well-being across countries differentially affected by COVID-19 is missing to date. We address this gap in the literature by examining the mental, social, functional, and financial well-being of 2,100 individuals across Australia, France, Germany, and South Africa by means of a survey administered during May of 2021. Supporting our holistic approach, we find that the different dimensions of well-being are correlated, with survey respondents from France reporting the lowest and those from Australia reporting the highest overall level of well-being. Respondents' subjective and objective evaluations of their living conditions during lockdowns as well as positive health and financial behaviors are positively associated with their well-being during the pandemic.

Superstitious beliefs, locus of control, and feeling at risk in the face of Covid-19.

Unprecedented uncertainty during the Covid-19 pandemic stimulated anxiety among individuals, while the associated health restrictions contributed to a feeling of loss of control. Prior research suggests that, in times of crisis, some individuals rely on superstitious beliefs as a coping mechanism, but it remains unclear whether superstition is positively or negatively associated with fear of Covid-19 during the pandemic, and the role that individuals' locus of control plays in this regard. In two studies conducted among individuals in Belgium and the U.S., we therefore examined the relationship between superstitious beliefs, locus of control, and feeling at risk of Covid-19. Across both countries, we found that superstition is positively, and internal locus of control negatively, related with feeling at risk of Covid-19. Moreover, in Belgium, the effect of superstition was less pronounced for individuals with a higher level of internal locus of control. The absence of an interaction effect between superstition and locus of control in the U.S. could be explained by this country's higher level of superstitious beliefs and lower level of internal locus of control combined with a stronger feeling of being at risk of Covid-19 or cultural differences such as Belgium's higher uncertainty avoidance compared to the U.S.

Number 19: Another Victim of the COVID-19 Pandemic?

Conscious selection is the mental process by which lottery players select numbers nonrandomly. In this paper, we show that the number 19, which has been heard, read, seen, and googled countless times since March 2020, has become significantly less popular among Belgian lottery players after the World Health Organization named the disease caused by the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 "COVID-19". We argue that the reduced popularity of the number 19 is due to its negative association with the COVID-19 pandemic. Our study triangulates evidence from field data from the Belgian National Lottery and survey data from a nationally representative sample of 500 Belgian individuals. The field data indicate that the number 19 has been played significantly less frequently since March 2020. However, a potential limitation of the field data is that an unknown proportion of players selects numbers randomly through the "Quick Pick" computer system. The survey data do not suffer from this limitation and reinforce our previous findings by showing that priming an increase in the salience of COVID-19 prior to the players' selection of lottery numbers reduces their preference for the number 19. The effect of priming is concentrated amongst those with high superstitious beliefs, further supporting our explanation for the reduced popularity of the number 19 during the COVID-19 pandemic.