Full Citation

Title: The COVID-19 Pandemic: Government vs. Community Action Across the United States

Citation Type: Working Paper

Publication Year: 2020

ISBN:

ISSN:

DOI:

NSFID:

PMCID:

PMID:

Abstract: Are lockdown policies eective at inducing physical distancing to counter the spread of COVID-19? Can less restrictive measures that rely on voluntary community action achieve a similar eect? Using data from 40 million mobile devices, we find that a lockdown increases the percentage of people who stay at home by 8% across US counties. Grouping states with similar outbreak trajectories together and using an instrumental variables approach, we show that time spent at home can increase by as much as 39%. Moreover, we show that individuals engage in limited physical distancing even in the absence of such policies, once the virus takes hold in their area. Our analysis suggests that non-causal estimates of lockdown policies' eects can yield biased results. We show that counties where people have less distrust in science, are more highly educated, or have higher incomes see a substantially higher uptake of voluntary physical distancing. This suggests that the targeted promotion of distancing among less responsive groups may be as eective as across-the-board lockdowns, while also being less damaging to the economy.

Url: https://www.inet.ox.ac.uk/files/BrzezinskiKechtDeianaVanDijcke_18042020_CEPR_2.pdf

User Submitted?: No

Authors: Brzezinski, Adam; Deiana, Guido; Kecht, Valentin; Dijcke, David Van

Series Title: INET Oxford Working Paper

Publication Number: 2020-06

Institution: University of Oxford

Pages:

Publisher Location:

Data Collections: IPUMS USA

Topics: Other

Countries: