Culture In Times Of Covid-19: The Relationship Between Individualism And Countries' Response To The Crisis

In this work, I explore the relationship between culture and the response of countries to the COVID-19 pandemic. The dependent variables range from the economic consequences of the COVID-19 (GDP growth and unemployment) to government response (indexes of stringency and economic support) and effectiveness of lockdown measures (Google mobility indicators). I investigate whether individualistic culture measured by the individualism index developed by Geert Hofstede has any influence on the abovementioned variables. I estimate regressions using ordinary least squares (OLS) and a fixed effect estimator on country-level annual and quarterly data. The results show that individualism is not significantly associated with economic outcomes and stringency of governmentimposed social distancing measures. However, it moderates the effect of the latter on public’s geographical mobility