The Impact of an Epidemic: Experimental Evidence on Preference Stability from Wuhan

Shachat, J.; Walker, M.J.; Wei, L.

Abstract

We examine how the outbreak of the COVID-19 virus in the Hubei province of China impacted pro-social behavior and attitudes toward risk and uncertainty. The study repeatedly applies a panel of financially incentivized individual and strategic decision tasks via the WeChat social media platform to a population of preregistered Wuhan University students. We find that the initial outbreak coupled with the lock-down of Wuhan City led to an uptick in altruism, trust, and ambiguity aversion and a downtick in risk aversion. Over the remaining samples, we observed that all measurements return to baseline levels except for risk aversion.

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Feb 11, 2021
• Online Publication Date: May 31, 2021
• Publication Date: 2021-05
• Deposit Date: Aug 26, 2021
• Publicly Available Date: Aug 26, 2021
• Journal: AEA Papers and Proceedings
• Print ISSN: 2574-0768
• Electronic ISSN: 2574-0776
• Publisher: American Economic Association
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 111
• Pages: 302-306
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1257/pandp.20211002
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1243049
• Publisher URL: https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/pandp.20211002&ArticleSearch%5Bwithin%5D%5Barticletitle%5D=1&ArticleSearch%5Bwithin%5D%5Barticleabstract%5D=1&ArticleSearch%5Bwithin%5D%5Bauthorlast%5D=1&ArticleSearch%5Bq%5D=The+Impact+of+an+Epidemic%3A+Experime