2024/12/27 by Graziano Montresor, Lucia Schiavon · 1 voice
Economics, Econometrics and Finance · Mathematics · Social Sciences · #COVID-19 Pandemic Impacts #COVID-19 epidemiological studies #Media Influence and Politics
paper · doi:10.1016/j.ehb.2024.101462
openalex publication_date 2024/12/27 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/31
Exploiting high-frequency vaccination data for COVID-19 and social capital measures at the municipal level in Italy between January and October 2021, this paper estimates the effect of social capital on vaccination compliance. We find that weekly vaccination coverage increased up to 1.60 percentage points more in municipalities with higher social capital. Results do not differ by gender and the effect is mainly driven by younger generations. Our findings shed light on the role of social capital as a driver of health protective behavior. • Local social capital is a significant driver of vaccination compliance. • Up to 1.6 pp more in weekly vaccination coverage in high social capital areas. • Social capital effects are stronger for younger generations (<40 years old). • Main effects are robust to different measures of social capital and vaccination coverage. • Results are confirmed by alternative model specifications and sample splits.