COVID-19 and Unequal Social Distancing across Demographic Groups

Hakan Yilmazkuday

No 2006, Working Papers from Florida International University, Department of Economics

Abstract: This paper analyzes whether social distancing experienced by alternative demographic groups within the U.S. has been different amid COVID-19. The formal investigation is achieved by using daily state-level mobility data from the U.S. covering information on the demographic categories of income, education and race/ethnicity. The results show that social distancing has been experienced more by higher-income, higher-educated or Asian people after the declaration of National Emergency on March 13th, 2020. Since alternative demographic groups were subject to alternative employment opportunities during this period (e.g., due to being able to work from home), it is implied that COVID-19 has redistributive effects that require demographic-group specific policies.

Keywords: COVID-19; Coronavirus; Social Distancing; Demographics; Income; Education; Race (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I10 I18 I20 J15 O15 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 27 pages
Date: 2020-08
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-sea
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

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https://economics.fiu.edu/research/pdfs/2020_working_papers/2006.pdf First version, 2020 (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: COVID‐19 and unequal social distancing across demographic groups (2020)
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