We use the synthetic control method to analyze the effect of face masks on the spread of Covid‐19 in Germany. Our identification approach exploits regional variation in the point in time when wearing of face masks became mandatory in public transport and sales shops. Depending on the region we...

We explore the role of social capital in the spread of the recent Covid-19 pandemic in independent analyses for Austria, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland and the UK. We exploit within-country variation in social capital and Covid-19 cases to show that high-social-capital...

We explore how social network exposure to COVID-19 cases shapes individuals' social distancing behavior during the early months of the ongoing pandemic. We work with de-identified data from Facebook to show that U.S. users whose friends live in areas with worse coronavirus outbreaks reduce their...