Civic Capital and Social Distancing during the COVID-19 Pandemic

John Barrios, Efraim Benmelech, Yael Hochberg (), Paola Sapienza and Luigi Zingales
Additional contact information
Yael Hochberg: Rice University - Jones Graduate School of Business

No 2020-74, Working Papers from Becker Friedman Institute for Research In Economics

Abstract: The success of non-pharmaceutical interventions to contain pandemics often depends greatly upon voluntary compliance with government guidelines. What explains variation in voluntary compliance? Using mobile phone and survey data, we show that during the early phases of COVID-19, voluntary social distancing was higher when individuals exhibit a higher sense of civic duty. This is true for U.S. individuals, U.S. counties, and European regions. We also show that after U.S. states began re-opening, social distancing remained more prevalent in high civic capital counties. Our evidence points to the importance of civic capital in designing public policy responses to pandemics.

Pages: 26 pages
Date: 2020
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-soc
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (56)

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https://repec.bfi.uchicago.edu/RePEc/pdfs/BFI_WP_202074.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Working Paper: Civic Capital and Social Distancing during the Covid-19 Pandemic (2020)
Working Paper: Civic Capital and Social Distancing during the Covid-19 Pandemic (2020)
Working Paper: Civic Capital and Social Distancing during the Covid-19 Pandemic (2020)
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