Bowling alone or distancing together? The role of social capital in excess death rates from COVID19

Timothy Fraser; Daniel P Aldrich; Courtney Page-Tan

doi:10.1016/j.socscimed.2021.114241

Bowling alone or distancing together? The role of social capital in excess death rates from COVID19

Soc Sci Med. 2021 Sep:284:114241. doi: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2021.114241. Epub 2021 Jul 19.

Authors

Timothy Fraser¹, Daniel P Aldrich², Courtney Page-Tan³

Affiliations

¹ PhD Candidate, Dept. of Political Science, Northeastern University, 960A Renaissance Park, 360 Huntington Ave, Boston, MA, 02115, USA. Electronic address: timothy.fraser.1@gmail.com.
² Professor of Political Science, Public Policy and Urban Affairs and Director of Security and Resilience Program, Northeastern University, 215H Renaissance Park, 360 Huntington Avenue, Boston, MA, 02115, USA. Electronic address: daniel.aldrich@gmail.com.
³ Assistant Professor of Human Resilience, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Dept. of Security and Emergency Services, 1 Aerospace Boulevard, Daytona Beach, FL, 32114, USA. Electronic address: courtneypagetan@gmail.com.

Abstract

Much attention on the spread and impact of the ongoing pandemic has focused on institutional factors such as government capacity along with population-level characteristics such as race, income, and age. This paper draws on a growing body of evidence that bonding, bridging, and linking social capital - the horizontal and vertical ties that bind societies together - impact public health to explain why some U.S. counties have seen higher (or lower) excess deaths during the COVID19 pandemic than others. Drawing on county-level reports from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) since February 2020, we calculated the number of excess deaths per county compared to 2018. Starting with a panel dataset of county observations over time, we used coarsened exact matching to create smaller but more similar sets of communities that differ primarily in social capital. Controlling for several factors, including politics and governance, health care quality, and demographic characteristics, we find that bonding and linking social capital reduce the toll of COVID-19 on communities. Public health officials and community organizations should prioritize building and maintaining strong social ties and trust in government to help combat the pandemic.

Keywords: COVID19; Coarsened exact matching; Disaster; Excess deaths; Policy; Social capital.

MeSH terms

COVID-19*
Humans
Income
Pandemics
SARS-CoV-2
Social Capital*