COVID-19 spread and inter-county travel: Daily evidence from the U.S.

2020/10/23 by Hakan Yilmazkuday · 1 voice · 3 citations
Mathematics · Economics, Econometrics and Finance · Social Sciences · #COVID-19 epidemiological studies #COVID-19 Pandemic Impacts #Vaccine Coverage and Hesitancy

paper · doi:10.1016/j.trip.2020.100244

openalex publication_date 2020/10/23 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28

Abstract

Daily data at the U.S. county level suggest that coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) cases and deaths are lower in counties where a higher share of people have stayed in the same county (or travelled less to other counties). This observation is tested formally by using a difference-in-difference design controlling for county-fixed effects and time-fixed effects, where weekly changes in COVID-19 cases or deaths are regressed on weekly changes in the share of people who have stayed in the same county during the previous 14 days. A counterfactual analysis based on the formal estimation results suggests that staying in the same county has the potential of reducing total weekly COVID-19 cases and deaths in the U.S. as much as by 139,503 and by 23,445, respectively.

Citations

• A familial cluster of pneumonia associated with the 2019 novel coronavirus indicating person-to-person transmission: a study of a family cluster
• The effect of travel restrictions on the spread of the 2019 novel coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak
• The effect of human mobility and control measures on the COVID-19 epidemic in China

Cited by

• Nonlinear effects of mobility on COVID-19 in the US: targeted lockdowns based on income and poverty
• Exploring the impacts of COVID-19 on travel behavior and mode preferences
• Welfare costs of COVID‐19: Evidence from US counties

Discussions

• Lower inter-county travel was associated with lower COVID-19 cases and deaths during the early pandemic period. doi.org/10.1016/j.trip.2020... [bsky, 1 points, 0 comments]

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