Risk and Health Policy Preferences: Evidence from the UK COVID-19 Crisis

25 Pages Posted: 9 Dec 2021

See all articles by Jack Blumenau

Jack Blumenau

London School of Economics & Political Science (LSE)

Timothy Hicks

University College London - School of Public Policy

Raluca L. Pahontu

King's College London

Date Written: December 8, 2021

Abstract

The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic constituted a large shock to the risk of acquiring a disease that represents a meaningful threat to health. We investigate whether individuals subject to larger increases in objective health risk -- operationalised by occupation-based measures of proximity to other people -- became more supportive of increased government healthcare spending during the crisis. Using panel data which tracks UK individuals before and after the outbreak of the pandemic, we implement a fixed-effect design which was pre-registered before the key treatment variable was available to us. While individuals in high-risk occupations were more worried about their personal risk of infection, and had higher COVID death rates, there is no evidence that increased health risks during COVID-19 shifted attitudes on government spending on healthcare, nor broader attitudes relating to redistribution. Our findings are consistent with recent research demonstrating the limited effects of the pandemic on political attitudes.

Suggested Citation

Blumenau, Jack and Hicks, Timothy and Pahontu, Raluca L., Risk and Health Policy Preferences: Evidence from the UK COVID-19 Crisis (December 8, 2021). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3980696 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3980696

Jack Blumenau

London School of Economics & Political Science (LSE) ( email )

Houghton Street
London, WC2A 2AE
United Kingdom

Timothy Hicks

University College London - School of Public Policy ( email )

29/30 Tavistock Square
London, WC1H 9QU
United Kingdom

HOME PAGE: http://tim.hicks.me.uk/

Raluca L. Pahontu (Contact Author)

King's College London ( email )

London
United Kingdom

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