IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/pal/easeco/v49y2023i2d10.1057_s41302-023-00241-6.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Social Disparities and Social Distancing During the Covid Pandemic

Author

Listed:
  • Lewis Davis

    (Union College)

  • Justin Esposito

    (Union College)

Abstract

According to Putnam (2000) and Bourdieu (1986), social disparities may result in the formation of narrow social bonds that exacerbate existing social cleavages and impede collective action. Motivated by this insight, we examine the relationship between social disparities and social distancing during the pre-vaccine Covid pandemic in the US. Using a panel of weekly, county-level observations, we find that income, educational and racial disparities are associated with a statistically significant decrease in the social distancing. This result is robust to controls for a wide variety of socioeconomic variables, the Covid infection rate, and a measure of social capital.

Suggested Citation

  • Lewis Davis & Justin Esposito, 2023. "Social Disparities and Social Distancing During the Covid Pandemic," Eastern Economic Journal, Palgrave Macmillan;Eastern Economic Association, vol. 49(2), pages 129-141, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:pal:easeco:v:49:y:2023:i:2:d:10.1057_s41302-023-00241-6
    DOI: 10.1057/s41302-023-00241-6
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1057/s41302-023-00241-6
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1057/s41302-023-00241-6?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Alberto Alesina & Eliana La Ferrara, 2000. "Participation in Heterogeneous Communities," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 115(3), pages 847-904.
    2. Blair, Robert A. & Morse, Benjamin S. & Tsai, Lily L., 2017. "Public health and public trust: Survey evidence from the Ebola Virus Disease epidemic in Liberia," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 172(C), pages 89-97.
    3. Bartscher, Alina Kristin & Seitz, Sebastian & Siegloch, Sebastian & Slotwinski, Michaela & Wehrhöfer, Nils, 2021. "Social capital and the spread of covid-19: Insights from european countries," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 80(C).
    4. Wenzhi Ding & Ross Levine & Chen Lin & Wensi Xie, 2020. "Social Distancing and Social Capital: Why U.S. Counties Respond Differently to COVID-19," NBER Working Papers 27393, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    5. Luigi Guiso & Paola Sapienza & Luigi Zingales, 2004. "The Role of Social Capital in Financial Development," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 94(3), pages 526-556, June.
    6. Rupasingha, Anil & Goetz, Stephan J. & Freshwater, David, 2006. "The production of social capital in US counties," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 35(1), pages 83-101, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Castriota, Stefano & Rondinella, Sandro & Tonin, Mirco, 2023. "Does social capital matter? A study of hit-and-run in US counties," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 329(C).
    2. Chen, Yangyang & Duong, Huu Nhan & Goyal, Abhinav & Veeraraghavan, Madhu, 2023. "Social capital and the pricing of initial public offerings," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).
    3. Lu, Haitian & Wang, Bo & Wang, Haizhi & Zhao, Tianyu, 2020. "Does social capital matter for peer-to-peer-lending? Empirical evidence," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 61(C).
    4. Hoi, Chun Keung(Stan) & Wu, Qiang & Zhang, Hao, 2019. "Does social capital mitigate agency problems? Evidence from Chief Executive Officer (CEO) compensation," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 133(2), pages 498-519.
    5. Lingxiao Li & Erdem Ucar & Abdullah Yavas, 2022. "Social Capital and Mortgage Delinquency," The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Springer, vol. 64(3), pages 379-403, April.
    6. Huang, Kershen & Shang, Chenguang, 2019. "Leverage, debt maturity, and social capital," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 26-46.
    7. Iftekhar Hasan & Chun‐Keung (Stan) Hoi & Qiang Wu & Hao Zhang, 2017. "Does Social Capital Matter in Corporate Decisions? Evidence from Corporate Tax Avoidance," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 55(3), pages 629-668, June.
    8. Iftekhar Hasan & Chun‐Keung (Stan) Hoi & Qiang Wu & Hao Zhang, 2017. "Does Social Capital Matter in Corporate Decisions? Evidence from Corporate Tax Avoidance," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 55(3), pages 629-668, June.
    9. James, Hui L., 2023. "Social capital and the riskiness of trade credit," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance, Elsevier, vol. 39(C).
    10. Hasan, Iftekhar & (Stan) Hoi, Chun-Keung & Wu, Qiang & Zhang, Hao, 2020. "Is social capital associated with corporate innovation? Evidence from publicly listed firms in the U.S," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 62(C).
    11. John (Jianqiu) Bai & Shuili Du & Wang Jin & Chi Wan, 2023. "Is social capital associated with individual social responsibility? The case of social distancing during the Covid-19 pandemic," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 64(4), pages 1861-1896, April.
    12. Borgonovi, Francesca & Andrieu, Elodie & Subramanian, S.V., 2021. "The evolution of the association between community level social capital and COVID-19 deaths and hospitalizations in the United States," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 278(C).
    13. Pilatin Abdulmuttalip & Hacıimamoğlu Tunahan, 2023. "The relationship between social capital and economic growth on a provincial and regional basis," Economics and Business Review, Sciendo, vol. 9(3), pages 153-180, October.
    14. repec:zbw:bofrdp:2017_021 is not listed on IDEAS
    15. Kershen Huang & Chenguang Shang, 2024. "Does informal governance matter to institutional investors? Evidence from social capital," The Financial Review, Eastern Finance Association, vol. 59(2), pages 433-457, May.
    16. Abakah, Alex Annan, 2024. "Does social capital matter in underwriter's fees?," Global Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 62(C).
    17. Gupta, Atul & Raman, Kartik & Shang, Chenguang, 2018. "Social capital and the cost of equity," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 87(C), pages 102-117.
    18. Jin, Justin Yiqiang & Kanagaretnam, Kiridaran & Lobo, Gerald J. & Mathieu, Robert, 2017. "Social capital and bank stability," Journal of Financial Stability, Elsevier, vol. 32(C), pages 99-114.
    19. Jiraporn, Pornsit & Lee, Sang Mook & Shim, Hyeongsop, 2022. "Does social capital influence executive risk-taking incentives?," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 49(C).
    20. Fraser, Timothy & Aldrich, Daniel P. & Page-Tan, Courtney, 2021. "Bowling alone or distancing together? The role of social capital in excess death rates from COVID19," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 284(C).
    21. John (Jianqiu) Bai & Chenguang Shang & Chi Wan & Yijia Eddie Zhao, 2022. "Social Capital and Individual Ethics: Evidence from Financial Adviser Misconduct," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 181(2), pages 495-518, November.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:pal:easeco:v:49:y:2023:i:2:d:10.1057_s41302-023-00241-6. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.palgrave-journals.com/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.