%0 Report
        %A Costa-Font, Joan
%A Gatti, Nicolò
%A Turati, Gilberto
%A Wisen, Daniel
        %T COVID-19 Pandemic and Prosociality: An Experiment with Healthcare Professionals
        %D 2026
        %8 2026 Jul
        %I Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)
        %C Bonn
        %7 IZA Discussion Paper
        %N 18796
        %U https://www.iza.org/publications/dp18796
        %X We study the extent to which exposure to COVID-19 relates to healthcare professionals’ prosociality. Drawing on empirical evidence from an incentivized experiment and a companion survey of healthcare professionals (HCPs) at a large Italian hospital (N = 194), we find that different forms of exposure to COVID-19 predict their altruistic motivation in heterogeneous ways. HCPs who worked in COVID-19 wards or had a close relative or friend severely affected by the virus are more than 5 percentage points more likely to prioritize patient welfare over personal gain, with the association for professional exposure being mostly driven by female HCPs, especially nurses. Conversely, personally contracting COVID-19 is associated with a 6 percentage point decline in prosociality. Our results highlight that different experiences of need shape prosocial behavior in hospital settings.
        %K COVID-19
%K provider altruism
%K healthcare professionals
%K medical decision-making
%K prosocial behavior
%K experiment