Public Perceptions of and Government Responses to Health Crises

Session Submission Type: In-Person Created Panel

Session Description

The papers on this panel consider factors that influence government responses to health crises, including but not limited to the COVID-19 pandemic. The papers also consider the downstream consequences of those responses. The authors consider these topics in the contexts of multiple developed and developing countries.

Jake Haselswerdt and Sarah Gollust study whether the public’s perceptions of COVID cases, hospitalizations and deaths reflect the actual rates of these events in individuals’ local context. They examine how the answer to this question differs by individual-level traits, and they examine how these perceptions influence political attitudes and political behaviors.

Taeko Hiroi and Gregory Schober study the impact of government health programs and government transfers on public and private forms of political participation among low-income individuals in developing democracies.

Trung-Anh Nguyen and Hwayoung Lee examine explanations for cross-country differences in successfully handling the COVID-19 pandemic, as measured by COVID-19 case counts. They particularly examine the role of state capacity and the degree of constraints on government action as explanatory variables.

Jack Blumenau, Timothy Hicks, Alan M. Jacobs, Scott Matthews, and Tom O'Grady test whether the COVID-19 pandemic, and policy responses to it, have changed mass attitudes about government’s role in the economy, about whether beneficiaries of state support are deserving of such aid, about the acceptability of economic inequality, and about the value of paying taxes to support state-provided public goods. They also study the mechanisms that animate the answers to these questions.

Sub Unit

• Division 48: Health Politics & Health Policy

Chair

• Mark Schlesinger Yale University

Discussant

• Andrea Louise Campbell Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Individual Presentations

• Awareness of COVID-19 at the Local Level: Political Causes and Consequences - Jake Haselswerdt, University of Missouri; Sarah E. Gollust, University of Minnesota

• Health Policy, Transfers, and Political Participation in Developing Democracies - Gregory Schober, University of Texas at El Paso; Taeko Hiroi, The University of Texas at El Paso

• Testing Negative: The Non-Consequences of COVID-19 on Mass Political Attitudes - Jack Blumenau, UCL; Timothy Hicks, University College London; Scott Matthews, Memorial University; Tom O'Grady, University College London; Alan M. Jacobs, University of British Columbia