Public attitude towards government financial support during the COVID-19 pandemic in Taiwan

ABSTRACT

The COVID-19 pandemic presents an opportunity to study public attitudes towards government provision of financial support. By focusing on Taiwan, we find that financial concern is a crucial determinant in explaining public attitudes towards government financial support, and trust in government capacity to cope with the COVID-19 pandemic effectively moderates the impact of financial concerns. We conclude that trust in government capacity is not only the key to the legitimacy of government financial support, but also helps mitigate citizens’ sense of economic insecurity and uncertainty during the COVID-19 crisis.

KEYWORDS:

• Taiwan
• government financial support
• public attitude
• risk perception
• trust

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Ethics

The study underwent rigorous review and obtained approval from the Human Research Ethics Committee at National Cheng Kung University in Taiwan

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Notes

1. The economic growth rate was 3.36% and 6.57% in 2020 and 2021, respectively. Source: National Statistic, Taiwan (https://nstatdb.dgbas.gov.tw/).

2. Source: Taiwan Centre for Disease Control (https://www.cdc.gov.tw/File/Get/t9WVo8Tu6qk66c6VDBaz6Q).

3. Source: Taiwan Centre for Disease Control (https://www.cdc.gov.tw/File/Get/JKdsd0_07C5nNiLOJ2xs9Q).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Science and Technology Council, Taiwan [108-2410-H-031-069-MY2].

Notes on contributors

Chung-Yang Yeh

Chung-Yang Yeh is an Associate Professor at Department of Sociology, Soochow University, Taipei, Taiwan. His main research interests include ‘comparative East Asian welfare states’, ‘welfare attitudes’ and ‘pension policy’. He published some Journal articles and books chapters focusing on pension policies, social investment policies and in-work poverty in East Asia.

Pei-Yuen Tsai

Pei-Yuen Tsai is an Associate Professor at Graduate Institute of Social Work, National Chengchi University, Taiwan. His research interests include work-family balance, child and family policies and poverty in Taiwan and East Asia.

Yeun-Wen Ku

Yeun-Wen Ku is Professor at the Department of Social Work, National Taiwan University. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Manchester, U.K. and then taught social policy in Taiwan’s universities for over twenty years. He has written widely on welfare development and policy debates in Taiwan, extending to comparative study on East Asian welfare.