Download This PaperSocial Connections with COVID-19-Affected Areas Increase Compliance with Mobility Restrictions
Science Advances. Vol 6, Issue 47. DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.abc3054
11 Pages Posted: 5 May 2020 Last revised: 6 Nov 2023
Date Written: November 1, 2020
Abstract
We study the role of social connections in compliance of U.S. households with mobility restrictions imposed in response to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, using aggregated and anonymized Facebook data on social connections and mobile phone data for measuring social distancing at the county level. Relative to the average restriction efficacy, a county with one-SD more social connections with China and Italy—the first countries with major COVID-19 outbreaks—has a nearly 50% higher compliance with mobility restrictions. By contrast, social connections of counties with less-educated populations, a higher Trump vote share, and a higher fraction of climate change deniers show decreased compliance with mobility restrictions. Our analysis suggests that social connections are conduits of information about the pandemic and an economically important factor affecting compliance with, and impact of, mobility restrictions.
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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
Keywords: social networks, mobility restrictions, COVID-19
JEL Classification: D83, D85, H75, I12, I18
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation
Ben Charoenwong (Contact Author)
INSEAD ( email )
Boulevard de Constance
77305 Fontainebleau Cedex
France
HOME PAGE: http://https://www.insead.edu/faculty/ben-charoenwong
Swiss Finance Institute ( email )
c/o University of Geneva
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CH-1211 Geneva 4
Switzerland