Skip to main content

Research Repository

Advanced Search

COVID Social Distancing and the Poor: An Analysis of the Evidence for England

Basu, Parantap; Bell, Clive; Edwards, T. Huw

COVID Social Distancing and the Poor: An Analysis of the Evidence for England Thumbnail


Authors

Clive Bell

T. Huw Edwards



Abstract

Social distancing is a matter of individuals’ choices as well as of regulation. We analyse weekly panel data on such behaviour for English Upper Tier Local Authorities (UTLAs) from March to July 2020, paying attention to the influence of poverty, as measured by free school meals provision. Panel regressions suggest that, although more stringent regulation and slightly lagged local cases of infection increase social distancing, both effects are weaker in UTLAs with higher levels of poverty, in part because of poor housing, and also because shortage of money has forced the poor to keep working. Thus motivated, we develop a two-class (rich/poor) model, in which a Nash non-cooperative equilibrium arises from individual choices in a regulatory regime with penalties for non-compliance. The model yields results in keeping with the empirical findings, indicating the desirability of generous measures to furlough workers in low-paid jobs as a complement to the stringency of general regulation.

Citation

Basu, P., Bell, C., & Edwards, T. H. (2022). COVID Social Distancing and the Poor: An Analysis of the Evidence for England. BE Journal of Macroeconomics, 22(1), 211-240. https://doi.org/10.1515/bejm-2020-0250

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Jan 31, 2021
Online Publication Date Feb 16, 2022
Publication Date 2022-01
Deposit Date Feb 1, 2021
Publicly Available Date Mar 29, 2024
Journal BE Journal of Macroeconomics
Publisher De Gruyter
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 22
Issue 1
Pages 211-240
DOI https://doi.org/10.1515/bejm-2020-0250
Public URL https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1253301

Files

Accepted Journal Article (1.1 Mb)
PDF

Copyright Statement
© 2021 Parantap Basu et al., published by De Gruyter, Berlin/Boston

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.






You might also like



Downloadable Citations