Social Capital and the Spread of Covid-19: Insights from European Countries
56 Pages Posted: 1 Jun 2020
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Social Capital and the Spread of Covid-19: Insights from European Countries
Social Capital and the Spread of COVID-19: Insights from European Countries
Social Capital and the Spread of Covid-19: Insights from European Countries
Social Capital and the Spread of Covid-19: Insights from European Countries
Abstract
We explore the role of social capital in the spread of the recent Covid-19 pandemic in independent analyses for Austria, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland and the UK. Exploiting within-country variation, we show that a one standard deviation increase in social capital leads to 12% and 32% fewer Covid-19 cases per capita accumulated from mid-March until mid-May. Using Italy as a case study, we find that high-social-capital areas exhibit lower excess mortality and a decline in mobility. Our results have important implications for the design of local containment policies in future waves of the pandemic.
Keywords: COVID-19, social capital, collective action, health costs, Europe
JEL Classification: D04, A13, D91, H11, H12, I10, I18
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