Asocial capital: Civic culture and social distancing during COVID-19

Ruben Durante, Luigi Guiso and Giorgio Gulino

Economics Working Papers from Department of Economics and Business, Universitat Pompeu Fabra

Abstract: Social distancing can slow the spread of COVID-19 if citizens comply with it and internalize the cost of their mobility on others. We study how civic values mediate this process using data on mobility across Italian provinces between January and May 2020. We find robust evidence that after the virus outbreak mobility declined, but significantly more in areas with higher civic capital, both before and after a mandatory national lockdown. Simulating a SIR model calibrated on Italy, we estimate that if all provinces had the same civic capital as those in top-quartile, COVID-related deaths would have been ten times lower.

Keywords: civic capital; Culture; Externalities; social distancing; COVID-19 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D91 Z1 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020-05
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (29)

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Related works:
Journal Article: Asocial capital: Civic culture and social distancing during COVID-19 (2021)
Working Paper: Asocial Capital: Civic Culture and Social Distancing during COVID-19 (2020)
Working Paper: Asocial Capital: Civic Culture and Social Distancing during COVID-19 (2020)
Working Paper: Asocial Capital: Civic Culture and Social Distancing during COVID-19 (2020)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:upf:upfgen:1723

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