Student Studies State Pandemic Policies, Consumer Behaviors

As state governments managed their own responses to the coronavirus pandemic, Tony Xu was watching. Xu, a senior in economics and mathematical sciences at Carnegie Mellon University, studies how U.S. government lockdown policies affect how people behave. Xu's first set of data includes the period between March and May 25 when the first stage of lockdowns ended and states had started to reopen. "Now we are at a point where we need to include the data from late June to early July," Xu said. "The major thing is that we didn't expect the case numbers to increase so rapidly during that period." Among his results he found some characteristics - such as political affiliation and level of education - correlate with compliance, or lack thereof. "If you have a bachelor's degree or higher, you are more likely to be compliant in terms of your behaviors," Xu said. "If you have a high school degree or lower, you are more likely to go out." He also noted that there is a negative correlation between consumer spending when COVID-19 cases increase and that this effect is more striking for households with higher income.