Working Paper: NBER ID: w27776
Authors: Samuel Bazzi; Martin Fiszbein; Mesay Gebresilasse
Abstract: Rugged individualism—the combination of individualism and anti-statism—is a prominent feature of American culture with deep roots in the country’s history of frontier settlement. Today, rugged individualism is more prevalent in counties with greater total frontier experience (TFE) during the era of westward expansion. While individualism may be conducive to innovation, it can also undermine collective action, with potentially adverse social consequences. We show that America’s frontier culture hampered the response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Across U.S. counties, greater TFE is associated with less social distancing and mask use as well as weaker local government effort to control the virus. We argue that frontier culture lies at the root of several more proximate explanations for the weak collective response to public health risks, including a lack of civic duty, partisanship, and distrust in science.
Keywords: COVID-19; rugged individualism; public health; collective action
JEL Codes: H12; H23; H75; I12; I18; P16
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| total frontier experience (TFE) (F16) | reduced social distancing (I14) |
| total frontier experience (TFE) (F16) | lower mask usage (E26) |
| total frontier experience (TFE) (F16) | weaker local policy responses (F68) |
| total frontier experience (TFE) (F16) | distrust in science (D80) |
| total frontier experience (TFE) (F16) | prioritization of individual over collective goals (D70) |
| total frontier experience (TFE) (F16) | cultural emphasis on individualism (P14) |
| population density and socio-economic factors (R23) | confounding of TFE effects (C22) |