Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/233530 
Year of Publication: 
2020
Series/Report no.: 
EconPol Policy Report No. 27
Publisher: 
ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich, Munich
Abstract: 
We design and conduct large-scale surveys and experiments in eleven European countries to examine the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on social trust, reciprocity, solidarity as well as institutional trust. Using incentivized outcome questions on trust and solidarity towards fellow citizens, people from other EU countries and non-EU countries, we assess the causal effect of priming respondents about the COVID-19 crisis. We find that respondents correctly believing that they live in an EU country with a below average COVID-19 incidence show higher levels of trust and reciprocity towards fellow citizens than respondents in the control group. In contrast, respondents who wrongly assume to live in a high incidence country reveal a lower level of reciprocity. For respondents who rightly believe that incidence is high in their country we find positive treatment effects on solidarity. Our study further establishes that the pandemic reduces trust in institutions, in particular for those respondents who (rightly) believe that their country's is strongly hit by COVID-19.
Subjects: 
COVID-19
Europe
trust
reciprocity
solidarity
survey experiment
JEL: 
D72
H51
H53
H55
O52
P52
Document Type: 
Research Report

Files in This Item:
File
Size
994.91 kB





Items in EconStor are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.