How do people balance concerns for general health and economic outcomes during a pandemic? And, how does the communication of this trade-off affect individual preferences? We address these questions using a field experiment involving around 2000 students enrolled in a large university in Italy. We design four treatments where the trade-off is communicated using different combinations of a positive framing that focuses on protective strategies and a negative framing which refers to potential costs. We find that positive framing on the health side induces students to give greater relevance to the health dimension. The effect is sizeable and highly effective among many different audiences, especially females. Importantly, this triggers a higher level of intention to adhere to social distancing and precautionary behaviors. Moreover, irrespective of the framing, we find a large heterogeneity in students' preferences over the trade-off. Economics students and students who have directly experienced the economic impact of the pandemic are found to give greater value to economic outcomes.

The health-economy trade-off during the Covid-19 pandemic: Communication matters / V. Carrieri, M. De Paola, F. Gioia. - In: PLOS ONE. - ISSN 1932-6203. - 16:9(2021 Sep 13), pp. e0256103.1-e0256103.19. [10.1371/journal.pone.0256103]

The health-economy trade-off during the Covid-19 pandemic: Communication matters

F. Gioia
Ultimo
2021

Abstract

How do people balance concerns for general health and economic outcomes during a pandemic? And, how does the communication of this trade-off affect individual preferences? We address these questions using a field experiment involving around 2000 students enrolled in a large university in Italy. We design four treatments where the trade-off is communicated using different combinations of a positive framing that focuses on protective strategies and a negative framing which refers to potential costs. We find that positive framing on the health side induces students to give greater relevance to the health dimension. The effect is sizeable and highly effective among many different audiences, especially females. Importantly, this triggers a higher level of intention to adhere to social distancing and precautionary behaviors. Moreover, irrespective of the framing, we find a large heterogeneity in students' preferences over the trade-off. Economics students and students who have directly experienced the economic impact of the pandemic are found to give greater value to economic outcomes.
Attitude; COVID-19; Communicable Disease Control; Decision Making; Health Education; Humans; Costs and Cost Analysis; Persuasive Communication
Settore SECS-P/01 - Economia Politica
Settore SECS-P/02 - Politica Economica
13-set-2021
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/2434/890526
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