Combating the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Role of the SARS Imprint
研究发现，2003年经历过SARS的国家，其民众和政府在新冠疫情初期更早关注并采取行动，包括更早搜索信息、股市反应更快、更早实施社交隔离政策，且民众更遵守规定。
We provide evidence of delayed attention and inaction in response to COVID-19 in countries that did not experience SARS in 2003. Using cross-country data, we find that individuals in countries that had SARS infections in 2003 searched more intensively for COVID-19-related information on Google in late January 2020, the time of the first known outbreak in Wuhan, China. Early attention to the novel virus, as measured by Google searches, is associated with deeper stock market drops in countries with SARS experience. In contrast, people in countries without SARS experience started to pay more attention much later, in March. Moreover, governments in these countries responded significantly more slowly in implementing social distancing policies to combat domestic COVID-19 outbreaks than governments in countries with SARS experience. Moreover, such early responses of individuals and governments in countries with SARS experience are prevalent within continent, even in non-Asian countries. Furthermore, people in countries with SARS experience are more compliant with social distancing rules. These timely attention and proactive responses of individuals and governments are more pronounced in countries that reported deaths caused by SARS, which left deeper imprints. Our findings suggest that the imprint of similar viruses’ experience is a fundamental mechanism underlying timely responses to COVID-19. This paper was accepted by Haoxiang Zhu, finance.