Government Policies and Personal Decisions - Substitutes or Complements?

In response to the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, governments implement containment policies to restrict people's activities. It raises the question of whether these policies are necessary and strict enough. Using two datasets, a national survey in the United States and a government response tracker, I show that lockdown substitutes for self-protection measures when there is no labour uncertainty. However, when the labour uncertainty is prevalent, lockdown and self-protection are complements.