Social Capital and the Spread of Covid-19: Insights from European Countries

Arbeitspapier

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.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: CESifo Working Paper ; No. 8346

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Microeconomic Policy: Formulation, Implementation, and Evaluation ; Relation of Economics to Social Values ; Micro-Based Behavioral Economics: Role and Effects of Psychological, Emotional, Social, and Cognitive Factors on Decision Making‡ ; Structure, Scope, and Performance of Government ; Crisis Management ; Health: General ; Health: Government Policy; Regulation; Public Health
• Subject: Covid-19 ; social capital ; collective action ; health costs ; Europe

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Bartscher, Alina Kristin ; Seitz, Sebastian ; Sieglich, Sebastian ; Slotwinski, Michaela ; Wehrhöfer, Nils ; Siegloch, Sebastian
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): Center for Economic Studies and Ifo Institute (CESifo)
• (where): Munich
• (when): 2020

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/219164
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:44 AM CET