In previous work, Giuntella et al. (Proc Natl Acad Sci 118:e2016632118, 2021), we documented large disruptions to physical activity, sleep, time use and mental health among young adults at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in Spring 2020. This study explores the trends 1 year into COVID-19, as vaccines began to roll out, COVID-19 deaths declined, and social distancing measures eased in the United States. We combine biometric and survey data from multiple cohorts of college students spanning Spring 2019 through Spring 2021 (N = 1179). Our results show persistent impacts of the pandemic on physical activity and mental health. One year into the pandemic, daily steps averaged about 6300 per day compared to about 9800 per day prior to the pandemic, a 35% decline. Almost half of participants were at risk of clinical depression compared to a little over one-third prior to the pandemic, a 36% increase. The impacts on screen time, social interactions and sleep duration at the onset of COVID-19 largely dissipated over the course of the pandemic, though screen time remained significantly higher than pre-pandemic levels. In contrast to the sharp changes in lifestyle and mental health documented as the pandemic emerged in March 2020, we do not find evidence of behavioral changes or improvements in mental well-being over the course of Spring 2021 as the pandemic eased.
In a field experiment, we studied the performance of an incentive scheme that combines a lottery-based reward for compliance with probabilistic sanctions for noncompliance. For one month, bus passengers who purchased a ticket on board a subset of buses operating in a medium-sized Italian city participated in a lottery awarding a €500 prize. The remaining buses—otherwise identical—were used as controls. We observed the amount of tickets sold on treated and control buses over three months, before, during, and after the introduction of the lottery. Results show that treated buses sold significantly more on-board tickets than control buses during the lottery period. In our setup, the estimated extra revenues from the ticket sales caused by the introduction of the lottery fell short of the amount of the total prizes raffled off. However, the incentive scheme proved cost-effective because not all the lottery prizes were claimed by winners. This paper was accepted by Uri Gneezy, behavioral economics.
Many governments have implemented social distancing and lockdown measures to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19). Using province-level geolocation data from Italy, we document that political disbelief can limit government policy effectiveness. Residents in provinces leaning towards extreme right-wing parties show lower rates of compliance with social distancing order. We also find that, during the Italian lockdown, provinces with high protest votes virtually disregarded all social distancing orders. On the contrary, in provinces with higher political support for the current political legislation, we found a higher degree of social distancing compliance. These results are robust to controlling for other factors, including time, geography, local COVID-19 cases and deaths, healthcare hospital beds, and other sociodemographic and economic characteristics. Our research shows that bipartisan support and national responsibility are essential to implement and manage social distancing efficiently. From a broader perspective, our findings suggest that partisan politics and discontent with the political class (i.e., protest voting) might significantly affect human health and the economy.
This paper presents a theoretical investigation into why losing weight is so difficult even in the absence of rational addiction, time-inconsistent preferences or bounded rationality. We add to the existing literature by focusing on the role that individual metabolism has on weight loss. The results from the theoretical model provides multiple steady states and a threshold revealing a situation of "obesity traps" that the individual must surpass in order to successfully lose weight. Given such a threshold we investigate if a short-run incentive scheme for weight loss is able to promote persistent weight-losses and what features an incentive scheme should have in order to sustain permanent weight loss. We find that a lump-sum incentive scheme is not always able to lead the individual to permanent weight loss. On the contrary, a non-decreasing incentive scheme with rewards for weight loss according to levels of body weight (i.e. progressive), is able to sustain a steady state reduction in body weight and food consumption.JEL-Classification: D91, I12, I18
Since the beginning of the 20th century, the structure of social interaction has changed dramatically. Individuals are now less likely to develop social relationships outside their families. This pattern is especially noticeable in developed countries (Putnam, 1995(Putnam, , 2001.Using data from the US General Social Survey, Putnam (2001) shows a decline in social capital along several dimensions (e.g., memberships in civic organisations, participation in labour unions, etc.) to the point where many feel isolated and reluctant to even talk about important matters. Putnam suggests that one of the major causes for this is the fact that the only organisation which increased their membership from 1950 until today do not tend to foster face-toface interaction. 1 More recently, McPherson et al. (2008) documented that the number of Americans reporting no one to discuss important matters with nearly tripled between 1985 and 2005, with a reduction in mean network size of about a third to only one friend. McPherson et al. (2008) further show that both family and nonfamily peers were declining, but the greater decrease of non-family ties leads to more confidant networks being centred on spouses and parents, with fewer external contacts. The largest losses have come from the ties that connect individuals to the community. The loss in socialising time is also attributable to the changes in working schedules and opportunity costs of time, making it even more costly for individuals to undertake time-intensive health-enhancing activities with their friends (Burton & Turrell, 2000;Campbell, 2002;Kouvonen et al., 2005).Social isolation is pervasive in modern society, prompting many countries around the world to take action. 2 This is because social isolation is not just a problem by itself but it poses some serious health concerns. Less socially connected individuals have disrupted sleep patterns, altered immune systems, more inflammation and higher levels of stress hormones. 3 There is also evidence these effects start early. 4 Despite the rich evidence on the health effects of social isolation, it is not clear what works best to address the issue.
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