During the COVID-19 pandemic, the introduction of mandatory face mask usage triggered a heated debate. A major point of controversy is whether community use of masks creates a false sense of security that would diminish physical distancing, counteracting any potential direct benefit from...

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the introduction of mandatory face mask usage triggered a heated debate. A major point of debate is whether community use of masks creates a false sense of security that would diminish physical distancing, counteracting any potential direct benefit from masking. We...

This paper studies the causal impacts of vaccine eligibility on social distancing behaviors (risk compensation). We apply a regression discontinuity design around the birth date cutoff of vaccine eligibility using large, high-frequency data from credit card and airline companies as well as...