Stimulus Relief Funds Increase Social Distancing to Stop Spread of COVID-19

Findings suggest economically vulnerable households need to leave the house more to work. As case rates of COVID-19 reach new heights across the nation, many states and cities are tightening stay-at-home restrictions to stop the spread. New research suggests that that those suffering from economic hardships are less likely comply with new stay-at-home orders; however, these same U.S. residents would be more likely to adhere to the new public health guidelines if their households received stimulus funds. The results, published in the Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, suggest that of the measures taken to address economic dislocation caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the CARES Act helped reduce an important source of viral spread: social interaction. In the new paper , researchers from the University of California San Diego School of Global Policy and Strategy and the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy sought to accurately measure public willingness to abide by shelter-in-place ordinances first introduced in spring of 2020. The researchers examined large quantities of geolocated cellular phone device use patterns. The data, provided by the analytics company UNACAST, estimate information such as the number of people who are living in a home, the average time spent at home or outside, and changes in the average distance a user traveled.