Uneven Recovery from the COVID-19 Pandemic: Post-lockdown Human Mobility Across Chinese Cities

Yanyan Liu (), Shuang Ma () and Ren Mu ()
Additional contact information
Yanyan Liu: IFPRI, International Food Policy Research Institute
Shuang Ma: Guangzhou University
Ren Mu: Texas A&M University

No 14187, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: How quickly can we expect human mobility to resume to pre-pandemic levels after lockdowns? Does pandemic severity affect the speed of post-lockdown recovery? Using real-time cross-city human mobility data from China and a difference-in-difference-in-differences framework, we find that mobility in most cities resumed to normal six weeks after reopening. In contrast, the epicenter cities, those with the worst outbreaks, were slow to recover; twelve weeks after reopening, mobility had not returned to the pre-pandemic levels. We provide suggestive evidence that relatively undiminished pandemic concerns may have slowed down mobility recovery in the epicenter region. Our findings imply that a severe pandemic experience impedes post-lockdown mobility recovery. From a policy perspective, this study suggests that it is important to successfully contain the pandemic to achieve a faster post-lockdown recovery.

Keywords: COVID-19; population mobility; post-lockdown; China (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H12 I18 L60 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 27 pages
Date: 2021-03
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cna
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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