22 Sep 2020Working Paper Summaries

Older People Are Less Pessimistic about the Health Risks of COVID-19

by Pedro Bordalo, Katherine B. Coffman, Nicola Gennaioli, and Andrei Shleifer

The pandemic presents a unique opportunity to investigate formation of beliefs about an unprecedented, widespread, and life-threatening event. One finding: COVID-19 makes the prospect of disease and death particularly salient for the young.

Author Abstract

A central question for understanding behaviour during the COVID-19 pandemic, at both the individual and collective levels, is how people perceive the health and economic risks they face. We conducted a survey of over 1,500 Americans from May 6–13, 2020, to understand these risk perceptions. Here we report some preliminary results. Our most striking finding is that perceived personal health risks associated with COVID-19 fall sharply with age.