Social Capital and the Spread of COVID-19: Insights from European Countries
Refereed Journal // 2021We investigate the effect of social capital on health outcomes during the Covid-19 pandemic in independent analyses for Austria, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, the Netherlands, Sweden and Switzerland. Exploiting detailed geographical variation within countries, we show that a one-standard-deviation increase in social capital leads to between 14% and 34% fewer Covid-19 cases per capita accumulated from mid-March until end of June 2020, as well as between 6% and 35% fewer excess deaths per capita. Our results highlight the positive health returns of strengthening social capital.
Bartscher, Alina Kristin, Sebastian Seitz, Sebastian Siegloch, Michaela Slotwinski and Nils Wehrhöfer (2021), Social Capital and the Spread of COVID-19: Insights from European Countries, Journal of Health Economics 80 , 102531