The role of populations’ behavioral traits in policy-making during a global crisis: Worldwide evidence
研究了109个国家中风险偏好、耐心、利他主义和信任等行为特征如何影响新冠疫情期间的政策响应，发现信任度高的国家反应更晚，而耐心、利他和信任的人口更倾向于实施中长期严格政策。
Substantial heterogeneity in behavioral traits has been observed across human societies, which have been linked to important differences in individual as well as societal outcomes. In this paper, we complement the existing literature by investigating the role of key behavioral traits, i.e. risk-taking, patience, altruism, and trust, at the population level in the design of new policies and institutions during an unexpected global crisis. Combining granular data on policy responses to the COVID-19 crisis with several pre-pandemic survey measures of behavioral traits in 109 countries, we observe robust relationships of significant magnitude. In particular, our findings underline that countries with higher levels of trust tended to respond later to the crisis; while populations that are patient, altruistic, and trusting are more likely to implement stringent policies in the medium and long-term. These results improve our understanding of how countries deal with global crises. They also supply an explanation for the lack of coordinated response at the international level during such events.