Stability of Pro-Sociality and Trust Amid the Covid-19: Evidence Based on the Panel Data from the Netherlands

Pro-sociality and trust can be vital in the fight against the Covid-19 and in the socio-economic recovery. Considering the enhanced importance of pro-sociality and trust, this paper examines the effects of Covid-19 on these preferences by using a geographically representative balanced panel data (time frame: 2019 – 2020) from the Netherlands. The fixed effects panel regressions show that pro-social behavior and general trust do not differ pre-and-post Covid-19. The article further analyzes pro-sociality and trust among people who unfortunately got infected with Covid-19 and uninfected people using panel data (time frame: 2019 – 2020) from the Netherlands using difference-in-differences (DD) method to infer a causal effect of virus infections on preferences. The DD analysis also leads to insignificant causal effect of virus contractions on pro-sociality and trust. Overall, these analyses offer support that pro-sociality and general trust are stable post-pandemic as well as among infected and uninfected people. The results further strengthen the economic literature that argues preferences are stable across time and amid unfavorable natural shocks.