ABSTRACT
Information provided by experts is believed to play a key role in shaping attitudes towards policy responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. This paper uses a survey experiment to assess whether providing citizens with expert information about the health risk of COVID-19 and the economic costs of lockdown measures affects their attitudes towards these policies. Our findings show that providing respondents with information about COVID-19 fatalities among the elderly raises support for lockdown measures, while information about their economic costs decreases support. However, different population subgroups react differently. Men and younger respondents react more sensitively to information about lockdown costs, while women and older respondents are more susceptible towards information regarding fatality rates. Strikingly, our results are entirely driven by respondents who underestimate the fatality of COVID-19, who represent a majority.
ABSTRACT
We use panel data from three waves of a large representative population survey carried out between June and November 2020 to assess in what regards and to what extent different groups of the German population are affected by the COVID-19 crisis. Using common factor analysis, we show that people?s lives are mainly affected in two ways: First, a notable fraction of the population is concerned that they or their family members and friends may get infected with the coronavirus. Second, many people suffer from socio-economic consequences of the crisis, including a discontinuation of employment, a decrease in household income, and worries about financial troubles. Regressing these two factors on several socio-demographic characteristics reveals that especially the socio-economic consequences vary across population groups. Self-employed persons, marginally employed workers, low-income households, and families with children appear to be burdened overproportionally.