Risk and Preferences for Government Healthcare Spending: Evidence from the UK COVID-19 Crisis

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 – operationalized by occupation-based measures of proximity to other people – became more supportive of increased government healthcare spending during the crisis. Using panel data that track UK individuals before (May 2018–December 2019) and after (June 2020) the outbreak of the pandemic, we implement a fixed-effect design that 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-19 death rates, there is no evidence that increased health risks during COVID-19 shifted either attitudes on government spending on healthcare or broader attitudes relating to redistribution. Our findings are consistent with recent research demonstrating the limited effects of the pandemic on political attitudes.

Asymmetric nexus between pandemic uncertainty and public health spendings: Evidence from quantile estimation

“…Tobit regression revealed different influencing factors for each stage, such as comorbidities, government effectiveness, power distance, education, and population density. In the same way, Blumenau et al (2023) found that PHS increased during COVID-19 in the UK.…”

“…The outcome is endorsed by the study of Blumenau et al. (2023), who found that PHS increased during COVID‐19 in the UK.…”

“…In addition, a mixture of feeble and moderate positive PNU-PHS junction is ascertained in the precincts that consolidate low-to-middle PNU quantiles (0.05-0.50) with all PHS quantiles. The outcome is endorsed by the study of Blumenau et al (2023), who found that PHS increased during COVID-19 in the UK.…”

“…The USA and India, for instance, have faced substantial outbreaks, placing significant strain on their healthcare systems and necessitating substantial resource allocation (Gaffney et al., 2020; Garg et al., 2022). France, Germany, the UK, and other European countries have experienced multiple waves of the virus, leading to policy shifts and uncertainties regarding containment measures (Papanikods, 2020; Blumenau et al., 2023). Similarly, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Indonesia, Japan, and China have encountered unique challenges in managing the pandemic, each with its own distinct approaches and implications for PHS (Wu, 2020).…”