Government disclosure in influencing people’s behaviors during a public health emergency

Abstract

We shed light on the importance of government disclosure in public emergency management. During the outbreak of COVID-19, provinces in China entered a government disclosure regime, which mandated the disclosure of the number of people infected with the virus on a daily basis. Each province also voluntarily disclosed its own virus situation. We find that various forms of province-level government disclosure generally reduced the number of trips made by the infected and sped up their diagnosis. They also raised attention paid to the virus and self-protection awareness as well as reduced mobility among the susceptible. Finally, government voluntary disclosure helped to reduce the duration of local epidemics. We conclude that government disclosure can be effective in instilling the correct human behaviors that are conducive to fighting the pandemic.