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The spread of social distancing

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  • Cook, Jonathan
  • Newberger, Noah
  • Smalling, Sami

Abstract

We find that social distancing is affected by the policies set in neighboring counties, even after controlling for confirmed COVID cases and weather. A stay-at-home order in a neighboring county reduces social distancing by more than half as much as implementing an order in that county. This implies that, to increase social distancing in hard-hit counties, stay-at-home orders need to be implemented in a regionally or federally coordinated response. We also find that estimates of the efficacy of stay-at-home orders that do not control for policies in neighboring counties overstate the effect of these orders by about 50%.

Suggested Citation

  • Cook, Jonathan & Newberger, Noah & Smalling, Sami, 2020. "The spread of social distancing," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 196(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecolet:v:196:y:2020:i:c:s0165176520303128
    DOI: 10.1016/j.econlet.2020.109511
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Thanasis Stengos & Michael L. Polemis, 2020. "Threshold effects during the COVID-19 pandemic: Evidence from international tourist destinations," Working Papers 2005, University of Guelph, Department of Economics and Finance.
    2. Bencsik, Panka & Lusher, Lester & Taylor, Rebecca L.C., 2023. "Slow Traffic, Fast Food: The Effects of Time Lost on Food Store Choice," IZA Discussion Papers 16036, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    3. Cantor, Jonathan & Sood, Neeraj & Bravata, Dena M. & Pera, Megan & Whaley, Christopher, 2022. "The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and policy response on health care utilization: Evidence from county-level medical claims and cellphone data," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 82(C).
    4. Bencsik, Panka & Lusher, Lester & Taylor, Rebecca, 2021. "Slow Traffic, Fast Food," 2021 Annual Meeting, August 1-3, Austin, Texas 313856, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    5. Burridge, James & Gnacik, Michał, 2022. "Public efforts to reduce disease transmission implied from a spatial game," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 589(C).
    6. Pakasa Bary & Rani Setyodewanti, 2021. "Consumption-contagion dynamics during epidemic with voluntary social distancing," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 41(2), pages 696-701.
    7. Hübler, Olaf, 2021. "COVID-19 Spread in Germany from a Regional Perspective," IZA Discussion Papers 14669, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    8. Xinming Du, 2023. "Symptom or Culprit? Social Media, Air Pollution, and Violence," CESifo Working Paper Series 10296, CESifo.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    COVID-19; Social distancing; Spillover effects; Spatial autoregression;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I1 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health
    • D62 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Externalities

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