Social capital and the spread of covid-19: Insights from european countries
Bartscher, A.K.; Seitz, S.; Siegloch, S.; Slotwinski, M.; Wehrhöfer, N.
Journal of Health Economics 80: 102531
2021
ISSN/ISBN: 1879-1646 PMID: 34607120 Accession: 072550789
We 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.