Social implications of Covid-19: Its impact on general trust, political trust, and trust in physicians in China

Motivated by current debates over the relationship between epidemic and trust, this paper estimates the short-term effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on general trust, political trust, and trust in physicians in China. Using an individual-level national longitude dataset, results from the Difference-in-Difference estimation show that greater exposure to Covid-19 risks significantly decreased general and political trust among the Chinese popu-lation, except for the younger generation (age 8-22). Higher exposure to Covid-19 in malleable ages of trust formation (age 8-22) may worsen individuals' general trust but improve their trust in local officials and phy-sicians. Results from heterogeneity tests reveal that Covid-19 exacerbated general trust among the vulnerable groups, whereas their political trust was stable.