Financial worry and government responses to the COVID-19 pandemic in 88 Countries: Did public confidence in National Governments matter?

During the COVID-19 pandemic, governments implemented various measures to control the spread of the virus, enhance healthcare systems, and mitigate the economic impact of these actions. In this study, we investigate how government responses to COVID-19, in terms of stringency and economic support, affected individuals' financial worries in 88 economies. We also investigate how the relationship between these variables was affected by the public’s confidence in the government. Our results suggest that greater stringency was associated with increased financial worry, irrespective of public trust in the government. Meanwhile, the impact of economic support policies varied with the level of public trust in the government. In countries where citizens reported high levels of confidence in their government, economic support to households helped to alleviate financial worry. In countries with low confidence levels, the support policies had no statistically significant impact.