Pandemic knowledge and regulation effectiveness: Evidence from COVID-19

Luisa Loiacono; Riccardo Puglisi; Leonzio Rizzo; Riccardo Secomandi

doi:10.1016/j.jce.2022.02.004

Pandemic knowledge and regulation effectiveness: Evidence from COVID-19

J Comp Econ. 2022 Sep;50(3):768-783. doi: 10.1016/j.jce.2022.02.004. Epub 2022 Feb 23.

Authors

Luisa Loiacono¹, Riccardo Puglisi², Leonzio Rizzo^{1

3}, Riccardo Secomandi¹

Affiliations

¹ University of Ferrara, Italy.
² University of Pavia, Italy.
³ Institut d'Economia Barcelona, Spain.

Abstract

The spread of COVID-19 led countries around the world to adopt lockdown measures of varying stringency, with the purpose of restricting the movement of people. However, the effectiveness of these measures on mobility has been markedly different. Employing a difference-in-differences design, we analyse the effectiveness of movement restrictions across different countries. We disentangle the role of regulation (stringency measures) from the role of people's knowledge about the spread of COVID-19. We proxy COVID-19 knowledge by using Google Trends data on the term "Covid". We find that lockdown measures have a higher impact on mobility the more people learn about COVID-19. This finding is driven by countries with low levels of trust in institutions and low levels of education.

Keywords: COVID-19, Education, Information, Institutions, Knowledge, Lockdown, Mobility, Stringency Index, JEL Codes, D7; E7; I18.

Publication types

Review