Crisis, Resilience, and Civic Engagement: Pandemic-Era Census Completion

Abstract

How do economic shocks and financial resilience shape civic engagement, especially for the economically insecure? I turn to the early months of the coronavirus pandemic for insights. In April 2020, with more than 23 million adults unemployed, the US government asked residents to participate in the constitutionally mandated decennial census. I test how variations in income shocks from the shutdown and sources of financial resilience predict disparities in census completion, a civic act designed to minimize participation barriers. First, I use nationally representative survey data to demonstrate that policies that protect the economically vulnerable from the full impacts of economic shocks also predict higher census completion rates. Then, I use Google Trends data to show that high unemployment search volume interacted with low resilience to predict depressed census completion. Findings shed light on how economic crises can widen participation gaps—with representation and resource consequences—and how policies that lessen acute economic shocks may reduce participation disparities.

The Political Embeddedness of Voluntary Action: The Case of Local Philanthropic COVID-19 Relief Funds

“…Unlike voting, which may represent self-interested political action, Vigdor (2004) posited that Census completion is a form of individual political engagement that benefits the larger community. Unlike voting, all U.S. residents are required to complete the Census and the process is designed to require limited resources (Denny, 2022), but completion of the return reflects a willingness to engage with government (Desouza & Bhagwatwar, 2012). As the 2020 Census was being fielded as the pandemic began and COVID-19 funds were being launched, we used county-level 2010 Census return rates.…”

Financial Resilience in the Quarter-Life Crisis Phase Group: Analysis of the Roles of Financial Literacy, Financial Planning, Self-Efficacy and Income

“…Several factors, such as financial literacy, planning, and self- efficacy, have been identified as determinants in predicting financial resilience (Ervina et al, 2020). However, previous studies on the determinants of financial resilience have been predominantly focused on investigations at specific levels, such as the organizational level (Merdiaty et al, 2021;Nkundabanyanga et al, 2019), household level (McKnight & Rucci, 2020) community level (Denny, 2022), and student level (Prameswari, 2020). Many studies have utilized the perspective resilience of finance at the individual level, including from the viewpoint of the adult age group (Hassan et al, 2018), Productive age group (Lyons et al, 2020), the workers (Setyorini et al, 2021), and the middle-aged (Bialowolski et al, 2022).…”

“…Research on financial resilience has been conducted from various perspectives, including financial resilience for organizations (Merdiaty et al, 2021;Nkundabanyanga et al, 2019), financial resilience at the household level (McKnight & Rucci, 2020), and financial resilience at the community level (Denny, 2022) several researchers have conducted investigations at the individual level, particularly regarding the determinants of financial resilience. Among the individual classes that have been studied are the productive age groups (Lyons et al, 2020), adulthood (Hassan et al, 2018), and the workers (Setyorini et al, 2021).…”

“…Given the significance of financial resilience for the quarter-life crisis phase group, from various perspectives and theoretical frameworks this study intend to rind several factors of financial resilience within the quarter-life crisis phase group, taking into account several findings from previous studies (Denny, 2022;Hassan et al, 2018;Lyons et al, 2020;McKnight & Rucci, 2020;Merdiaty et al, 2021;Nguyen et al, 2022;Nkundabanyanga et al, 2019;Setyorini et al, 2021), In this investigation, we will examine several factors, videlicet financial literacy, self-efficacy, and financial planning.…”

Navigating Emergencies: A Theoretical Model of Civic Engagement and Wellbeing during Emergencies

“…Recent studies have focused on citizens' engagement in several ways. For example, Denny [27] suggested that civic engagement, such as residents taking an interest in local disasters, trust between residents, and a sense of belonging to the community, could help overcome the effects of disasters.…”