Services in Need are Services Indeed: The Impact of COVID-19 Lockdown on Chinese Welfare Policy Preferences

Abstract

Using an original survey conducted in China, this study examines Chinese citizens’ attitudes toward various welfare programs in the COVID-19 era and how lockdowns affect citizens’ preferences for government spending plans. We find that those affected by the lockdown are more likely to support welfare programs. Furthermore, those who have been most severely impacted by the lockdown are more supportive of government spending plans to fund welfare programs that help citizens ease concerns about food insecurity, job loss, and health risks than they are of funding welfare programs that are less likely to do so.