Beyond Carrots or Sticks: How Mixed Soft Incentives Shape Citizen Coproduction during COVID-19

• In Event: Student Research Panel on National Security and Disasters

Abstract

Mobilizing citizen cooperation is essential during crises. For example, during the COVID-19 pandemic, behaviors such as reducing mobility, wearing face coverings, and receiving vaccinations represent key forms of coproduction that help lower infection rates. However, limited research examines how mixed incentives, especially combinations of soft policy tools, shape citizens’ voluntary behavior. This gap is even more pronounced in authoritarian contexts, where policy responses tend to rely on coercive and standardized interventions. Using Spring Festival travel data from 2019 to 2021 in China, this study examines the joint effect of soft positive incentives (government subsidies) and soft negative incentives (home health monitoring policies) on intercity mobility during the COVID-19 pandemic. To address potential endogeneity, a first-difference model combined with propensity score matching is employed. The results indicate that the policy mix reduced intercity travel by approximately 3% nationwide (about 45 million trips over a two-week period), whereas neither policy alone had a statistically significant effect. The effect is more pronounced in less economically developed cities. These findings underscore the effectiveness of combining non-coercive measures to promote citizen coproduction in a cost-efficient manner.

This study contributes to the literature on citizen coproduction in two ways. First, it advances the theoretical understanding of coproduction by showing how mixed soft incentives can jointly facilitate collective-level coproduction during public health emergencies. Second, it contributes methodologically by employing large-scale observed behavioral data, specifically, voluntary reductions in intercity mobility, as a proxy for coproduction. This approach improves measurement validity compared to the prevalent use of qualitative methods and self-reported data in existing studies, as well as indirect behavioral proxies such as online search activity.

From a practical perspective, this study provides policy-relevant insights into how citizen behavior can be influenced through more cost-effective interventions. Compared with coercive mandates, which may entail substantial economic costs and strain state–society relations and political trust, soft, voluntary policy instruments can achieve comparable behavioral outcomes while minimizing these adverse effects.

Author

• Hao Zha, University of Oxford
  Presenting Author