Social capital and the spread of Covid-19: Insights from European countries

Alina Kristin Bartscher (), Sebastian Seitz, Sebastian Siegloch, Michaela Slotwinski and Nils Wehrhöfer ()
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Alina Kristin Bartscher: University of Bonn
Nils Wehrhöfer: ZEW and University of Mannheim

No 7, ECONtribute Discussion Papers Series from University of Bonn and University of Cologne, Germany

Abstract: We explore the role of social capital in the spread of the recent Covid-19 pandemic in independent analyses for Austria, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland and the UK. We exploit within-country variation in social capital and Covid-19 cases to show that high-social-capital areas accumulated between 12% and 32% fewer Covid-19 cases per capita from mid-March until mid-May. Using Italy as a case study, we find that high-social-capital areas exhibit lower excess mortality and a decline in mobility. Our results have important implications for the design of local containment policies in future waves of the pandemic.

Keywords: Covid-19; social capital; collective action; health costs; Europe (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: A13 D04 D91 H11 H12 I10 I18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 55 pages
Date: 2020-06
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hea and nep-soc
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (46)

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https://www.econtribute.de/RePEc/ajk/ajkdps/ECONtribute_007_2020.pdf Second version, 2020 (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Social capital and the spread of covid-19: Insights from european countries (2021)
Working Paper: Social Capital and the Spread of Covid-19: Insights from European Countries (2020)
Working Paper: Social capital and the spread of Covid-19: Insights from European countries (2020)
Working Paper: Social Capital and the Spread of COVID-19: Insights from European Countries (2020)
Working Paper: Social capital and the spread of Covid-19: Insights from European countries (2020)
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