Social distancing as a public good under the COVID-19 pandemic.

ABSTRACT:

Objectives

The purpose of this study is to show that social distancing is a public good under the COVID-19 pandemic.

Study design

We apply economic theory to analyse a cross-sectional survey.

Methods

Economic theory is complemented with empirical evidence. An online survey of those aged 30-49 years in Japan (n = 2177) was conducted between April 28 and May 7. Respondents were selected by quota sampling with regard to age group, gender and prefecture of residence. Our main figure shows the proportion of people who increased/did not change/decreased social distancing, relative to the level of altruism and sensitivity to public shaming. The results of OLS and logit models are shown in Supplementary Materials.

Results

Social distancing is a public good under the CO

SUBMITTER: Cato S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7425541 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature