Public management during a crisis: when are citizens willing to contribute to institutional emergency preparedness?

Institutional emergency management has become an integral part of public management practice and research. This paper investigates the factors related to people’s willingness to contribute to institutional emergency preparedness. We explore the relationships between this willingness and people’s perceptions about the likelihood of government handling emergencies effectively, the risks of emergencies, and their relationship with public sector organizations. Using a dataset collected in Israel at two points in time before and during the COVID-19 pandemic, we demonstrate that people’s willingness to contribute to institutional emergency preparedness is strongly anchored in their evaluations of the public sector’s responsiveness and fairness.