活动内容

Topic

Old Ideology, Novel Virus – How Freedom Affects the Fight against COVID-19

Speaker

Zhen Li

Professor, National University of Singapore

Abstract

People's demand for freedom potentially impedes the containment of COVID-19. We demonstrate that COVID-19 displays a spatial discontinuity along the former East-West German border and virus-fighting policies are more effective in former pro-state East German districts. In an international setting using the number of Nobel-Prize winners as an instrument, we show that democracy, individualism and economic affluence aggravate the severity of COVID-19 and they reduce the effectiveness of social distancing and mobility restriction policies. We conclude that a greater reluctance among people to heed virus-fighting policies and an unbridled demand for freedom impose a negative health externality during a pandemic.