Political beliefs affect compliance with government mandates

We use the state-mandated stay-at-home orders during the coronavirus pandemic as a setting to study whether political beliefs inhibit compliance with government orders. Using geolocation data sourced from smartphones, we find residents in Republican counties are less likely to completely stay at hom...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of economic behavior & organization Vol. 185; pp. 688 - 701
Main Authors: Painter, Marcus, Qiu, Tian
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: Netherlands Elsevier B.V 01.05.2021
Subjects:
Coronavirus
COVID-19
Credit card transaction data
Geolocation data
Political polarization
COVID-19
Credit card transaction data
C55
Coronavirus
P16
Geolocation data
Political polarization
H7
ISSN:0167-2681, 1879-1751
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:We use the state-mandated stay-at-home orders during the coronavirus pandemic as a setting to study whether political beliefs inhibit compliance with government orders. Using geolocation data sourced from smartphones, we find residents in Republican counties are less likely to completely stay at home after a state order has been implemented relative to those in Democratic counties. Debit card transaction data shows that Democrats are more likely to switch to remote spending after state orders are implemented. Heterogeneity in factors such as Covid-19 risk exposure, geography, and county characteristics do not completely rule out our findings, suggesting political beliefs are an important determinant in the effectiveness of government mandates. Political alignment with officials giving orders may partially explain these partisan differences.
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ISSN:0167-2681
1879-1751
DOI:10.1016/j.jebo.2021.03.019