COVID-19 with Stigma: Theory and Evidence from Mobility Data

Abstract

This study conducts both theoretical and empirical analyses of how non-legally-binding COVID-19 policies affect people's going-out behavior. The theoretical analysis assumes that under a declared state of emergency, the individual going out suffers psychological costs arising from both the risk of infection and the stigma of going out. Our hypothesis states that under a declared state of emergency people refrain from going out because it entails a strong psychological cost. Then, this study estimates a model using regional mobility data and emergency declarations data to analyze self-restraint behavior under a non-legally binding emergency declaration. The results show that, compared with before the declaration of the state of emergency, going-out behavior was suppressed under the state of emergency and after it was lifted even when going out did not result in penalties, which is consistent with the theoretical analysis. Keywords COVID-19 • Stigma • Self-restraint behavior • Non-legally binding policy • Regional mobility This article is part of the Topical Collection on Economics of COVID-19 The authors acknowledge the support from JSPS KAKENHI grant numbers JP19K23194 and JP20K13486, and of Feasibility Project 14200138 of Research Institute for Humanity and Nature. We should like to thank editors of Economics of Disasters and Climate Change as well as anonymous reviewers. We also appreciate valuable comments from Keisuke Hattori, Kosuke Hirose, and Jumpei Hamamura.

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