Social capital as a containment factor of the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

Effectiveness of the pandemic containment can depend upon both actions of governments and willingness of the population to follow the introduced rules, which is heavily dependable upon the social capital structure in society. This article analyzes relationship between various components of social capital and changes in mobility during the COVID-19 pandemic. The article is based on data from the World Values Survey, Google COVID-19 Community Mobility Reports, Oxford COVID-19 Government Response Tracker, etc. The study hypotheses have been empirically tested on a sample of 61 countries, as well as subsamples of countries with high- and low-quality institutions. The results show that high levels of trust in the government, police and courts, as well as developed norms of cooperation in society (in particular, dislike of free riding), other things being equal, contribute to lower mobility during the pandemic. This effect is particularly pronounced in countries with high-quality institutions. A high level of generalized trust, on the contrary, is not associated with a lower mobility during the pandemic, which may limit its containment, especially in countries with low-quality institutions. The results obtained can be used for developing socio-economic policy aimed at containing the pandemic.