Original
Can Money Buy Trust? Social Transfers and Trust During the Covid‐19 Pandemic
Abstract
ABSTRACT The United States was among the countries that increased social spending the most during the pandemic, including by adopting new cash transfer schemes. Yet, little is known about the impact of these newly implemented or augmented benefits on citizen trust in public health institutions. Grounded in policy feedback literature and research on attitudinal spillover, we hypothesize that receiving social transfers during the pandemic increased trust in health institutions, with potentially heterogeneous effects across household income and political affiliation. Employing a difference‐in‐differences model and using the Understanding America Study dataset, we find no overall effect of receiving Stimulus Fund or SNAP benefits on trust in health institutions. However, we observe significant heterogeneity: Republicans—especially those with middle and high incomes—tend to decrease their trust after receiving the Stimulus Fund. Independents and respondents with other political affiliations also decrease trust after receiving the SNAP, although the estimates are only marginally statistically significant. Taken together, results suggest that while universalistic social policies are often believed to be broadly politically popular and generate positive feedback effects, their impacts may be limited or heterogeneous depending on political affiliation.
中文
金钱能买来信任吗？新冠疫情期间的社会转移支付与信任
摘要
摘要 美国是疫情期间社会支出增加最多的国家之一，包括采取新的现金转移支付计划。然而，对于这些新实施或扩大的福利如何影响公民对公共卫生机构的信任，人们知之甚少。基于政策反馈文献和态度溢出研究，我们假设疫情期间接受社会转移支付会增加对卫生机构的信任，并且这种影响可能因家庭收入和政治派别而存在异质性。我们采用双重差分模型，并使用 Understanding America Study 数据集，发现接受刺激资金或 SNAP 福利总体上对卫生机构信任没有影响。然而，我们观察到显著的异质性：共和党人——尤其是中高收入者——在接受刺激资金后倾向于降低信任。独立人士和其他政治派别的受访者在接受 SNAP 后也降低信任，尽管估计值仅具有边际统计显著性。总体而言，结果表明，虽然普遍主义社会政策通常被认为在政治上广泛受欢迎并产生积极反馈效应，但其影响可能有限，或取决于政治派别而存在异质性。
关键词
社会转移支付、信任、新冠疫情、政策反馈、政治派别、公共卫生机构、双重差分