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Intergenerational contacts and Covid-19 spread: Omnipresent grannies or bowling together?

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  • Albertini, Marco
  • Sage, Lucas
  • Scherer, Stefani

Abstract

Many scientists are currently contributing research on SARS-CoV2, with social scientists focusing on demographic and behavioral aspects when it comes to the diffusion of the virus. Recent publications include valid contributions about the importance of population’s demographic composition to understand country-differences in fatalities, and some speculations about the origins of different pace and patterns of diffusion. Among them the idea that intergenerational contacts would contribute to explain the fast spread and high fatality among the elderly population in some countries. We argument that in order to contribute to the scientific knowledge speculation is not enough and acknowledge that in the absence of solid, comparable data it is difficult to bring these ideas to an empirical test. Further, we present a simulation experiment shedding serious doubts on the importance of intergenerational contacts to spread the virus on the elderly population but underlining, instead, the importance of the high connectedness within the elderly population. That southern Europeans are not bowling alone seems to be more relevant to explain high diffusion among elderly than their contact to their (grand-)children.

Suggested Citation

  • Albertini, Marco & Sage, Lucas & Scherer, Stefani, 2020. "Intergenerational contacts and Covid-19 spread: Omnipresent grannies or bowling together?," SocArXiv exym8, Center for Open Science.
    • Handle: RePEc:osf:socarx:exym8
    DOI: 10.31219/osf.io/exym8
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Kuhn, Moritz & Bayer, Christian, 2020. "Intergenerational ties and case fatality rates: A cross-country analysis," CEPR Discussion Papers 14519, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    2. Lynne Hamill & Nigel Gilbert, 2009. "Social Circles: A Simple Structure for Agent-Based Social Network Models," Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation, Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation, vol. 12(2), pages 1-3.
    3. Albertini,Marco, 2016. "Ageing and family solidarity in Europe : patterns and driving factors of intergenerational support," Policy Research Working Paper Series 7678, The World Bank.
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    Cited by:

    1. Aparicio Fenoll, Ainoa & Grossbard, Shoshana, 2020. "Intergenerational residence patterns and Covid-19 fatalities in the EU and the US," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 39(C).

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