Individualism during Crises

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-45
Author(s):  
Bo Bian ◽  
Jingjing Li ◽  
Ting Xu ◽  
Natasha Z. Foutz
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
Collective Action ◽  
Social Distancing ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Economic Downturns ◽  
Collective Action Problems ◽  
Us Counties ◽  
The Individual ◽  
To Receive

Abstract Individualism has long been linked to economic growth. Using the COVID-19 pandemic, we show that such a culture can hamper the economy's response to crises, a period with heightened coordination frictions. Exploiting variation in US counties’ frontier experience, we show that more individualistic counties engage less in social distancing and charitable transfers, and are less willing to receive COVID-19 vaccines. The effect of individualism is stronger where social distancing has higher externality and holds at the individual level when we exploit migrants for identification. Our results suggest that individualism can exacerbate collective action problems during economic downturns.

scholarly journals Harnessing testing strategies and public health measures to avert COVID-19 outbreaks during ocean cruises

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Gerardo Chowell ◽  
Sushma Dahal ◽  
Raquel Bono ◽  
Kenji Mizumoto
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
Contact Network ◽  
Social Distancing ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Health Measures ◽  
Testing Strategies ◽  
Novel Coronavirus ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Impact

AbstractTo ensure the safe operation of schools, workplaces, nursing homes, and other businesses during COVID-19 pandemic there is an urgent need to develop cost-effective public health strategies. Here we focus on the cruise industry which was hit early by the COVID-19 pandemic, with more than 40 cruise ships reporting COVID-19 infections. We apply mathematical modeling to assess the impact of testing strategies together with social distancing protocols on the spread of the novel coronavirus during ocean cruises using an individual-level stochastic model of the transmission dynamics of COVID-19. We model the contact network, the potential importation of cases arising during shore excursions, the temporal course of infectivity at the individual level, the effects of social distancing strategies, different testing scenarios characterized by the test’s sensitivity profile, and testing frequency. Our findings indicate that PCR testing at embarkation and daily testing of all individuals aboard, together with increased social distancing and other public health measures, should allow for rapid detection and isolation of COVID-19 infections and dramatically reducing the probability of onboard COVID-19 community spread. In contrast, relying only on PCR testing at embarkation would not be sufficient to avert outbreaks, even when implementing substantial levels of social distancing measures.

FOUR DECADES OF POVERTY AND CONSUMPTION IN CHINA

2020 ◽  
Vol 65 (supp01) ◽  
pp. 117-138
Author(s):  
JINXIAN WANG ◽  
CHEN WANG ◽  
YAN ZHANG
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
Income Distribution ◽  
Negative Impact ◽  
Poverty Index ◽  
Domestic Consumption ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Provincial Level ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Empirical Analyses

Since 2010, China’s miraculous growth has come to a halt and has shown steady deceleration. To re-accelerate economic growth, stimulating domestic consumption is a crucial way with fighting poverty as the key step. This paper attempts to explore the impact of poverty on resident consumption in China over the last four decades. Based on provincial data, we first simulate income distribution at the individual level and provide moderate poverty profiles at the provincial level. The empirical analyses are then conducted to gauge the poverty impacts using the estimated poverty index. Results show that (1) moderate poverty has decreased sharply in China, with the best achievement in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangdong; (2) moderate poverty exerts a significantly negative impact on resident consumption; and (3) when poverty increases, resident consumption on household equipment decreases the most, while resident consumption on food, transportation, and telecommunication decreases the least.

The Post-War Period: 1946–1972

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lyn Ragsdale ◽  
Jerrold G. Rusk
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
World War Ii ◽  
Vietnam War ◽  
Voting Rights Act ◽  
World War ◽  
Economic Growth Rate ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Post War ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
The Individual

Abstract: The chapter considers nonvoting after World War II, a unique electoral period in American history with the lowest nonvoting rates of any period from 1920–2012. The post-war period also boasts the highest economic growth rate of any of the four periods, coupled with the early days of television which transformed politics in the 1950s. In general, economic growth and the introduction of television move nonvoting rates downward. The chapter also considers in detail the struggles leading to the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and the law’s impact on nonvoting rates among African Americans. It also uncovers that in the 1960s the Vietnam War increased nonvoting. The chapter begins an analysis of nonvoting at the individual level. The less individuals know about the campaign context and the less they form comparisons between the candidates, the more likely they will say home on Election Day.

Jewishness and jurisgenesis: On Seyla Benhabib’s Exile, Statelessness and Migration

2019 ◽  
Vol 46 (1) ◽  
pp. 10-17
Author(s):  
Max Pensky
Keyword(s):  
Collective Action ◽  
International Law ◽  
Critical Reading ◽  
Normative Commitment ◽  
Individual Person ◽  
Inherent Dignity ◽  
Personal Experiences ◽  
Collective Action Problems ◽  
And Migration ◽  
The Individual

The postwar era saw a remarkable transformation of international law, from a loose arrangement of agreements designed to reduce collective action problems to a normative commitment to the inherent dignity of the individual person. Seyla Benhabib’s new book shows the extent to which this transformation was a matter of deeply personal experiences. Understanding this dialectic between the personal and the universal is crucial for understanding not just the genesis of contemporary normative international law, but also its prospects for survival. This article focuses on Benhabib’s adoption of the process of jurisgenesis as an exemplary form of this dialectic, ending with a critical reading of Hannah Arendt’s attempt to contribute to this process.

scholarly journals Opting Out of the Social Contract: Tax Morale and Evasion

2019 ◽  
Vol 53 (7) ◽  
pp. 1175-1219 ◽  
Author(s):  
Néstor Castañeda ◽  
David Doyle ◽  
Cassilde Schwartz
Keyword(s):  
Latin American ◽  
Social Contract ◽  
Tax Morale ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Opting Out ◽  
Opt Out ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Individual ◽  
To Receive ◽  
American Cities

We examine the individual-level determinants of tax morale in low-capacity states, specifically Latin American countries, where the social contract is often perceived as fractured. We argue that individuals in such states perceive the social contract as an agreement to which they can opt in or opt out. Those who choose to opt out prefer to substitute state-provided goods for private providers, rather than pay for public goods through taxes or free ride to receive those goods. Through a list experiment conducted in Mexico City, we demonstrate that willingness to evade taxes is highest when individuals have stepped outside of the social contract. More traditional indicators of reciprocity—such as socioeconomic status and perceptions of corruption—are not significant. We bolster our experimental results with observational data from 17 Latin American cities; those with access to employer-sponsored insurance are more willing to evade tax.

scholarly journals Conditioned solidarity: EU citizens’ attitudes towards economic and social austerities for crisis countries receiving financial aid

Acta Politica ◽  
2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Holger Lengfeld ◽  
Florian K. Kley
Keyword(s):  
Debt Crisis ◽  
Political Debate ◽  
Mutual Help ◽  
Political Actors ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Attitudinal Differences ◽  
Country Level ◽  
The Individual ◽  
To Receive ◽  
The Eu

Abstract During the European debt crisis, there has been a massive political debate between the EU institutions and the governments of crisis countries on the kind of austerity measures these countries have to accept in order to receive financial assistance from rescue funds established by EU and IMF. Based on a Weberian approach regarding solidarity as an act of mutual help, we interpret austerity measures as particular conditions of solidarity Alter has to agree to in order to receive assistance from Ego. In this paper, we ask to what extent citizens of EU countries agree on the notion of conditioned solidarity, and to which extent they are divided by socio-structural or cultural conflict lines, or by country particularities. Using unique data from the 2016 13 country ‘Transnational European Solidarity Survey’, findings show that the majority of respondents reject the idea of conditionality. Logistic regressions reveal rather weak attitudinal differences between respondents at the individual level, while at the country level respondents from countries with growing unemployment, higher unemployment rates, government debt, and poverty rates are in tendency more likely to reject the measures. We conclude that paying attention to the idea of conditionality is an important aspect of assistance measures in the future, if political actors look to avoid a lack of legitimacy among European citizens.

scholarly journals How chimpanzees solve collective action problems

2012 ◽  
Vol 279 (1749) ◽  
pp. 4946-4954 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna-Claire Schneider ◽  
Alicia P. Melis ◽  
Michael Tomasello
Keyword(s):  
Collective Action ◽  
Group Size ◽  
Small Groups ◽  
Positive Relationship ◽  
Free Riding ◽  
Personal Relationships ◽  
Social Tolerance ◽  
Significant Variability ◽  
Collective Action Problems ◽  
The Individual

We presented small groups of chimpanzees with two collective action situations, in which action was necessary for reward but there was a disincentive for individuals to act owing to the possibility of free-riding on the efforts of others. We found that in simpler scenarios (experiment 1) in which group size was small, there was a positive relationship between rank and action with more dominant individuals volunteering to act more often, particularly when the reward was less dispersed. Social tolerance also seemed to mediate action whereby higher tolerance levels within a group resulted in individuals of lower ranks sometimes acting and appropriating more of the reward. In more complex scenarios, when group size was larger and cooperation was necessary (experiment 2), overcoming the problem was more challenging. There was highly significant variability in the action rates of different individuals as well as between dyads, suggesting success was more greatly influenced by the individual personalities and personal relationships present in the group.

What We Know about Voter-ID Laws, Registration, and Turnout

2009 ◽  
Vol 42 (01) ◽  
pp. 87-91 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marjorie Randon Hershey
Keyword(s):  
Voter Turnout ◽  
Democratic Politics ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Per Capita ◽  
The Individual ◽  
To Receive ◽  
Voter Id

“Turning out to vote is the most common and important act citizens take in a democracy,” John Aldrich writes (1993, 246), “and, therefore, is one of the most important behaviors for scholars of democratic politics to understand.” Turnout matters at the community as well as the individual level; the larger a county's voter turnout, for instance, the more discretionary federal resources it is likely to receive per capita (Martin 2003). “The blunt truth,” according to V. O. Key (1949, 527), “is that politicians and officials are under no compulsion to pay much heed to classes and groups of citizens that do not vote.”

scholarly journals “This Pandemic Is Making Me More Anxious about My Welfare and the Welfare of Others:” COVID-19 Stressors and Mental Health

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (11) ◽  
pp. 5680
Author(s):  
Ramey Moore ◽  
Melissa J. Zielinski ◽  
Ronald G. Thompson ◽  
Don E. Willis ◽  
Rachel S. Purvis ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Depressive Disorders ◽  
Ecological Model ◽  
Social Environments ◽  
Social Phenomena ◽  
Daily Lives ◽  
Social Distancing ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Individual

COVID-19 and subsequent social distancing guidelines have changed many aspects of people’s daily lives including the way that they interact within their social environment. Pandemics are inherently social phenomena, and public health measures intended to curtail transmission of COVID-19 (e.g., quarantine and social distancing) have consequences for individuals with anxiety and depression. Using qualitative methods, respondents with previously diagnosed anxiety or depression identified ways in which COVID-19 affected their symptoms at multiple levels of the social ecological model (SEM). Key themes reported were organized following the SEM. Emergent themes at the individual level are isolation/loneliness, fear of contracting COVID-19, and uncertainty about the future. Themes at the interpersonal level are: fears of family contracting COVID-19, separation from family members, and domestic relationships. Themes at the level of community and societal stressors are: employment, community and societal systems, media, and the COVID-19 pandemic. Our findings demonstrate the ways that mental health, physical health/safety, and social environments are interrelated in the experience of COVID-19 for individuals diagnosed with anxiety or depression. These findings make a significant contribution to the literature as this is the first article to document mental health stressors related to the COVID-19 pandemic among individuals with diagnosed anxiety and depressive disorders.

scholarly journals A Comparison of The Health Impacts of Individual Level and Area Based Welsh Government Fuel Poverty Schemes

2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (5) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sian Morrison-Rees ◽  
Sarah Lowe
Keyword(s):  
Energy Efficiency ◽  
Positive Impact ◽  
Respiratory Health ◽  
Health Impacts ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Health And Wellbeing ◽  
Before And After ◽  
The Individual ◽  
To Receive ◽  
Longitudinal Dataset

IntroductionLiving in a cold and/or damp house is known to increase the risk of morbidity, mortality and excess winter deaths. To reduce fuel poverty in Wales, the Welsh Government developed schemes to provide energy efficiency improvements to those most likely affected by fuel poverty. We explored the relative impacts on health of an individual-level scheme, Warm Homes Nest, and an area-based scheme, Arbed. Objectives and ApproachOverall aim: to evaluate the health impacts of Welsh Government funded schemes designed to reduce fuel poverty. Presented objective: to investigate the relative impact of the individual-level and area-based schemes on the health of recipients. A longitudinal dataset was created using the anonymised residence that received improvements linked to residents’ health measures using routine health records held in the SAIL Databank at Swansea University. We used difference-in-difference (DID) estimations to compare any changes in recipient health before and after intervention with any concurrent change in health in those yet to receive the intervention. ResultsAn analysis of the Warm Homes Nest Scheme, published in 2017 and presented at the IPDLN 2018 conference found a positive impact of the scheme on the health of recipients. This presentation will describe the further analysis comparing the area-based Arbed scheme with both the recipients of the individual-level Nest scheme and groups in comparable need that had not yet received the intervention. We will present results focussing on the relative impacts of the two schemes on respiratory health, infection prescribing and mental health. Conclusion / ImplicationsProviding home energy efficiency interventions has the potential to benefit population health, however there is a scarcity of evidence comparing different methods of implementing schemes. Our findings will inform more effectively focussed home energy efficiency schemes and potentially thus improve the health and wellbeing of people living in Wales.

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