Causal Effects of Long-term Orientation Traits on Pandemic Fatigue Behavior: Evidence from the Columbian Exchange Experiment

Leveraging county-level exogenous variation in the agricultural origins of time preferences, identified by Galor and Ozak (2016), we measure the causal effects of long-term orientation traits on mobility behavior and COVID-19 infection rates from 22 January 2020 to 30 November 2020 in the United States. County-level variations in the prevalence of long-term orientation traits with bio-geographical origins causally reduce the COVID-19 infection rate. Mobility indicators obtained from Apple and Google mobility reports show that a lower prevalence of long-term orientation traits explains resistance to social distancing behavior three months post-declaration of a national emergency in response to coronavirus.