Working Paper: NBER ID: w27560
Authors: Victor Couture; Jonathan I. Dingel; Allison E. Green; Jessie Handbury; Kevin R. Williams
Abstract: Tracking human activity in real time and at fine spatial scale is particularly valuable during episodes such as the COVID-19 pandemic. In this paper, we discuss the suitability of smartphone data for quantifying movement and social contact. We show that these data cover broad sections of the US population and exhibit movement patterns similar to conventional survey data. We develop and make publicly available a location exposure index that summarizes county-to-county movements and a device exposure index that quantifies social contact within venues. We use these indices to document how pandemic-induced reductions in activity vary across people and places.
Keywords: COVID-19; smartphone data; movement patterns; social contact; real-time data
JEL Codes: C8; R1; R23; R4
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| COVID-19 pandemic (H12) | reductions in movement and social contact (I14) |
| availability of smartphone data (L96) | ability to track human behavior accurately (C91) |
| COVID-19 pandemic (H12) | substantial declines in intercounty travel (R41) |
| COVID-19 pandemic (H12) | substantial declines in social contact in venues (Z13) |
| higher educational attainment (I23) | greater reduction in long-distance travel due to COVID-19 (R41) |
| higher educational attainment (I23) | greater reduction in social contact due to COVID-19 (I14) |