Working Paper: NBER ID: w27393
Authors: Wenzhi Ding; Ross Levine; Chen Lin; Wensi Xie
Abstract: Since social distancing is the primary strategy for slowing the spread of many diseases, understanding why U.S. counties respond differently to COVID-19 is critical for designing effective public policies. Using daily data from about 45 million mobile phones to measure social distancing we examine how counties responded to both local COVID-19 cases and statewide shelter-in-place orders. We find that social distancing increases more in response to cases and official orders in counties where individuals historically (1) engaged less in community activities and (2) demonstrated greater willingness to incur individual costs to contribute to social objectives. Our work highlights the importance of these two features of social capital—community engagement and individual commitment to societal institutions—in formulating public health policies.
Keywords: social distancing; social capital; COVID-19; public policy
JEL Codes: D62; H12; H41; I18
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| social capital (Z13) | social distancing (I14) |
| community engagement (O36) | social distancing (I14) |
| individual commitment to societal institutions (P37) | social distancing (I14) |
| community engagement (O36) | sensitivity to local COVID-19 cases (R23) |
| individual commitment to societal institutions (P37) | sensitivity to local COVID-19 cases (R23) |