Economic Hardship and Welfare Policy Preferences: What Can the COVID-19 Pandemic Tell Us?

This article examines how Americans' perceptions of the economic hardships caused by the COVID-19 pandemic influence their preferences for different types of welfare state responses, focusing on program characteristics such as universality versus means-testing, temporariness versus permanence, and cash transfers versus medical services. Using a nationally representative 2021 U.S. survey, the study finds that individuals who view the pandemic's economic effects as targeted to specific groups tend to support means-tested, temporary welfare programs and oppose universal programs, while those who see the effects as temporary generally prefer no new government intervention rather than temporary assistance. The research also reveals little difference in public support between cash transfers and medical services based on these perceptions, and that these patterns hold across partisan and ideological lines. These findings contribute nuanced insights into welfare preferences by highlighting how beliefs about the scope and duration of economic hardship shape support for specific welfare policies in a highly politicized context.