Curtailment of Civil Liberties and Subjective Life Satisfaction

"Curtailment of Civil Liberties and Subjective Life Satisfaction - The Social Cost of Corona Restrictions in Germany"

Research project together with Professor Dr. Kai Konrad and Lisa Windsteiger PhD from Max Planck Institute for Tax Law and Public Finance, Munich. Funded by the MPI for Tax Law and Public Finance in Munich. 2020.

The project attempts to measure the societal costs of the current restrictions in the economic and social cohabitation to contain the corona pandemic during the so-called lockdown in Germany in March and April 2020. It uses reactance as a measure of the intensity of a preference for freedom to explain variations in subjective life satisfaction loss.

The terms of measurement are self-assessed by subjects in internet questionnaires and in terms of willingness to pay and in terms of happiness. The various restrictions are, amongst others, contact closure, closures of schools, day-care centers and other public institutions, cinemas and restaurants. Research guiding questions are how these costs are distributed across socio-economic status groups, how important is the different degree of affectedness according to age groups. The data is collected through internet surveys (via respondi). By randomized issuing several different versions of questionnaires, the personal affectedness in terms of persons' age categories is given more or less salience by the amount of true information about the health risk posed by the coronavirus.