Social Distancing and Social Capital: Why U.S. Counties Respond Differently to COVID-19 / Wenzhi Ding, Ross Levine, Chen Lin, Wensi Xie.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Ding, Wenzhi.

Contributor:

Levine, Ross.

Lin, Chen.

Xie, Wensi.

National Bureau of Economic Research.

Series:

Working Paper Series (National Bureau of Economic Research) no. w27393.

NBER working paper series no. w27393

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource: illustrations (black and white);

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. National Bureau of Economic Research 2020.

Summary:

Since social distancing is the primary strategy for slowing the spread of many diseases, understanding why U.S. counties respond differently to COVID-19 is critical for designing effective public policies. Using daily data from about 45 million mobile phones to measure social distancing we examine how counties responded to both local COVID-19 cases and statewide shelter-in-place orders. We find that social distancing increases more in response to cases and official orders in counties where individuals historically (1) engaged less in community activities and (2) demonstrated greater willingness to incur individual costs to contribute to social objectives. Our work highlights the importance of these two features of social capital--community engagement and individual commitment to societal institutions--in formulating public health policies.

Notes:

June 2020.

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