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. 2021 Jan:193:104310.
doi: 10.1016/j.jpubeco.2020.104310. Epub 2020 Nov 11.

Civic capital and social distancing during the Covid-19 pandemic☆

John M Barrios  1 , Efraim Benmelech  2 , Yael V Hochberg  3 , Paola Sapienza  4 , Luigi Zingales  5
Affiliations

Civic capital and social distancing during the Covid-19 pandemic☆

John M Barrios et al. J Public Econ. 2021 Jan.

Abstract

Using mobile phone and survey data, we show that during the early phases of COVID-19, voluntary social distancing was greater in areas with higher civic capital and amongst individuals exhibiting a higher sense of civic duty. This effect is robust to including controls for political ideology, income, age, education, and other local-level characteristics. This result is present for U.S. individuals and U.S. counties as well as European regions. Moreover, we show that after U.S. states began re-opening, high civic capital counties maintained a more sustained level of social distancing, while low civic capital counties did not. Finally, we show that U.S. individuals report a higher tendency to use protective face masks in high civic capital counties. Our evidence points to the importance of considering the level of civic capital in designing public policies not only in response to pandemics, but also more generally.

Keywords: COVID-19; Civic capital; Compliance; Social capital; Social distancing.

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Figures

Exhibit 1
Exhibit 1
Civic Capital and Mobility.
Exhibit 2
Exhibit 2
U.S. County-level Analysis
Exhibit 3
Exhibit 3
U.S. County-level Robustness
Exhibit 4
Exhibit 4
U.S. Individual-level Survey Analysis
Exhibit 5
Exhibit 5
European Analysis
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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