2021, Kate Bundorf, "Pandemic Risk Perceptions and Protective Behavior"

Behavioral responses to the risk of being infected with COVID-19 as a result of social contact are key determinants of both pandemic dynamics and associated economic outcomes. Government shut-downs prevented some types of interaction during parts of 2020 and 2021, but voluntary individual decisions to avoid shopping, public transit, and other usual functions also played an important part. In a new study (28741), NBER affiliates Kate Bundorf of Duke University and Grant Miller and Maria Polyakova of Stanford University, along with Jill Dematteis and Jonathan Wivagg of Westat and Jialu Streeter of Stanford University, survey individuals to learn their beliefs about the risk of contracting COVID-19 while engaged in various activities and how they responded to these perceived risks. Bundorf describes their findings in the video above. An archive of NBER videos on pandemic-related research may be found here.