Lockdown Policies, Economic Support, and Mental Health: Evidence From the COVID-19 Pandemic in United States.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, various lockdown policies were put in place by the governments in different countries and different levels, which effectively curbed the spread of the virus, but also cause substantial damage to the mental health of local residents. We use statistics provided by the Household Pulse Survey and OxCGRT between 23 April 2020 and 30 August 2021 to analyze the impact of lockdown on overall mental health levels in US states during the COVID-19 pandemic at the macro level. The results show that the lockdown policies implemented by the state governments lead to a deterioration in psychological conditions, and this relationship varies to some extent depending on the level of high-quality economic support, that the state governments implement to alleviate the symptoms of depression and anxiety associated with the lockdown. Therefore, we argue that although lockdown policies are necessary during the COVID-19 pandemic, further government efforts are needed to give high-quality economic and mental health support to mitigate the negative effects of lockdown on mental health.

Sadder but Wiser: The Role of SARS Imprinting and Firms' Recovery During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Our study provides a new research perspective on firms' recovery during the COVID-19 pandemic, i.e., can similar events experienced by firms in the past have an imprinting effect on the improvement of firm's recovery? We focus on firms' Severe Acute Respiratory Syndromes (SARS) imprints. Based on four quarters of panel data of Chinese A-share listed companies in 2020, our study finds that SARS imprints are positively related to firms' recovery ability during the COVID-19 pandemic. Meanwhile, if the more severe the SARS pandemic experienced by a firm, the more significant the effect of SARS imprint on the firm's recovery ability during the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition, the higher the level of digitization of firms during the COVID-19 pandemic, the more it contributed to the enhancing effect of the SARS seal on firm recovery. Our study makes an important theoretical contribution to the recovery literature as well as to imprinting theory, while providing practical guidance for improving the recovery of firms during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The imprinting effect of SARS experience on the fear of COVID-19: The role of AI and big data.

The worldwide outbreak of the COVID-19 has significantly increased the fear of individuals, which brings severe psychosocial stress and adverse psychological consequences, and become a serious public health problem. Based on the imprinting theory, this study investigates whether childhood experiences of SARS have an imprinting effect that significantly influences the fear of COVID-19. Furthermore, we propose that this effect is contingent on the applications of AI and big data. We test our framework with a sample of 1871 questionnaires that covered students in universities across all provincial regions in China, and the results suggest that the imprinting of SARS increases the individuals' fear of COVID-19, and this effect is reduced with the applications of AI and big data. Overall, this study provides a novel insight of the fear caused by the childhood experience of the similar health crisis and the unique role of AI and big data applications into fighting against COVID-19.