This paper focuses on lower-income groups and their associated social distancing behavior changes under the stay-at-home orders. We find that the orders show differential impacts on economic groups. The policy effects on the social distancing indices of the lower-income group is much smaller than that of the upper-income group. One important driver of this difference from our finding is that the reduction in work-related trips of people in very low-income groups is not statistically significant. A large share of workers in the essential businesses defined by the stay-at-home orders are from the lower-income group.
School Authors: Yiyun 'Ryna' Cui, Jenna Behrendt, Andy Miller, Matthew Zwerling, Christoph Bertram, Mel George, Shannon Kennedy, Michael I. Westphal, Maria Borrero, Alicia Zhao, Gokul Iyer, Kathleen Kennedy, Zarrar Khan, Jiehong Lou, Haewon McJeon, Mengye Zhu, Nathan Hultman
Other Authors: Alexandra Kreis, Dillon Walton, Aldana Joel Canton, Shiqi Chen, Yingtong Li, Kowan O’Keefe