Open Access
A cure worse than the disease? : exploring the health-economy trade-off during COVID-19
Loading...
Files
Oana_et_al_2021.pdf (1.8 MB)
Full-text in Open Access. Published version.
License
Attribution 4.0 International
Access Rights
Cadmus Permanent Link
Full-text via DOI
ISBN
ISSN
0140-2382; 1743-9655
Issue Date
Type of Publication
LC Subject Heading
EUI Research Cluster(s)
Initial version
Published version
Succeeding version
Preceding version
Published version part
Earlier different version
Initial format
Citation
West European politics, 2021, Vol. 44, No. 5-6, pp. 1232-1257
Cite
OANA, Ioana-Elena, PELLEGATA, Alessandro, WANG, Chendi, A cure worse than the disease? : exploring the health-economy trade-off during COVID-19, West European politics, 2021, Vol. 44, No. 5-6, pp. 1232-1257 - https://hdl.handle.net/1814/72181
Abstract
Nationwide lockdowns implemented by governments to confront the COVID-19 pandemic came at a high economic price. The article investigates citizens’ evaluation of the trade-off between public health measures and their economic consequences. Using a vignette experiment conducted in June 2020 on 7,500 respondents in seven European countries the article tests whether perceived threats of the health and economic consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic affect citizens’ preferences for strict or mild lockdown measures. Findings show that European citizens tend to prefer strict measures protecting public health despite their damage to the economy. Even individuals more concerned about the pandemic’s economic impact do not prefer milder restrictions. Sociodemographic factors only indirectly affect public preferences, through perceived threats. Additionally, findings show that trust in experts and political orientations matter. These results resonate with previous research showing that public opinion in hard times is likely to be guided by risk perceptions and subjective attitudes.
Table of Contents
Additional Information
First published online: 17 June 2021
External Links
Publisher
Geographical Coverage
Temporal Coverage
Version
Source
Source Link
Research Projects
European Commission, 810356
Sponsorship and Funder Information
This study was supported by the SOLID research project (‘Policy Crisis and Crisis Politics, Sovereignty, Solidarity and Identity in the EU Post-2008’) financed by the ERC Synergy Grant Agreement 810356 (ERC-2018-SYG).