Working Paper: NBER ID: w27865
Authors: Alex Rees-Jones; John Dattoma; Amedeo Piolatto; Luca Salvadori
Abstract: In June 2020, we surveyed 2,516 Americans regarding their preferences for both short- and long-term expansions to government-provided healthcare and unemployment insurance programs. We find that support for such programs is positively associated with (a) COVID-19 deaths and infections in the respondent’s county, (b) the pandemic-induced change in the unemployment rate in the respondent’s county, and (c) survey elicitations of the respondent’s perceptions of COVID-19’s consequences. These associations persist when controlling for pre-COVID-19 political ideology and demographics. These results suggest that real or perceived exposure to COVID-19’s consequences has influenced support for expansions to the U.S. safety-net system.
Keywords: COVID-19; safety-net programs; government healthcare; unemployment insurance; policy preferences
JEL Codes: H2; H5
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| exposure to covid19's consequences (I12) | support for long-term unemployment insurance expansions (J65) |
| exposure to covid19's consequences (I12) | support for long-term expansions to government-provided healthcare (H51) |
| exposure to covid19's consequences (I12) | preference for a bigger government (D72) |
| pre-covid19 political ideology and demographic variables (D72) | support for long-term unemployment insurance expansions (J65) |
| pre-covid19 political ideology and demographic variables (D72) | support for long-term expansions to government-provided healthcare (H51) |
| pre-covid19 political ideology and demographic variables (D72) | preference for a bigger government (D72) |