TY - JOUR
T1 - Civic capital and social distancing during the Covid-19 pandemic☆
AU - Barrios, John M.
AU - Benmelech, Efraim
AU - Hochberg, Yael V.
AU - Sapienza, Paola
AU - Zingales, Luigi
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2020
PY - 2021/1
Y1 - 2021/1
N2 - Using mobile phone and survey data, we show that during the early phases of COVID-19, voluntary social distancing was greater in areas with higher civic capital and amongst individuals exhibiting a higher sense of civic duty. This effect is robust to including controls for political ideology, income, age, education, and other local-level characteristics. This result is present for U.S. individuals and U.S. counties as well as European regions. Moreover, we show that after U.S. states began re-opening, high civic capital counties maintained a more sustained level of social distancing, while low civic capital counties did not. Finally, we show that U.S. individuals report a higher tendency to use protective face masks in high civic capital counties. Our evidence points to the importance of considering the level of civic capital in designing public policies not only in response to pandemics, but also more generally.
AB - Using mobile phone and survey data, we show that during the early phases of COVID-19, voluntary social distancing was greater in areas with higher civic capital and amongst individuals exhibiting a higher sense of civic duty. This effect is robust to including controls for political ideology, income, age, education, and other local-level characteristics. This result is present for U.S. individuals and U.S. counties as well as European regions. Moreover, we show that after U.S. states began re-opening, high civic capital counties maintained a more sustained level of social distancing, while low civic capital counties did not. Finally, we show that U.S. individuals report a higher tendency to use protective face masks in high civic capital counties. Our evidence points to the importance of considering the level of civic capital in designing public policies not only in response to pandemics, but also more generally.
KW - COVID-19
KW - Civic capital
KW - Compliance
KW - Social capital
KW - Social distancing
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85095943343&partnerID=8YFLogxK
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U2 - 10.1016/j.jpubeco.2020.104310
DO - 10.1016/j.jpubeco.2020.104310
M3 - Article
C2 - 33199928
AN - SCOPUS:85095943343
VL - 193
JO - Journal of Public Economics
JF - Journal of Public Economics
SN - 0047-2727
M1 - 104310
ER -