Moral preferences over health-wealth trade-offs

Abstract

Using a choice experiment we analyze moral preferences over fatalities and jobs losses due to the pandemic in Italy, the UK and the US. We find that the participants’ utility function is mostly driven by health outcomes, and that respondents’ stable traits (such as political orientation or risk aversion) influence attitudes more than their personal experiences with the consequences of the pandemic. A structural estimation also displays, surprisingly, aversion to diversification among these two bads. Moreover, policy responses look misaligned with estimated preferences. Italy adopted more stringent containment measures, while Italian respondents display a relatively weaker pro-health attitude.