Compliance with Social Distancing: Theory and Empirical Evidence from Ontario during COVID-19

Abstract

We study the factors associated with compliance with social-distancing regulations using a unique dataset on the behaviour of Ontarians during the COVID-19 pandemic. To start, we build a simple theoretical model of social distancing in order to understand how some individual and community-level factors influence compliance. We test our model's predictions by designing and conducting a survey on Ontarians in which we elicit their degree of compliance with current distancing regulations as well as proposed regulations that impose different fine levels on violators or grant wage subsidies to encourage staying at home. In line with the model's predictions, we show that variables related to one's risk of infection (e.g., health status, age, necessity of working outside the home, regional COVID-19 cases) are significant predictors of compliance as are gender, political beliefs, risk and time preferences. Furthermore, we demonstrate that fines and wage subsidies can be powerful policy tools for promoting full compliance with regulations.

The social determinants of health as predictors of adherence to public health preventive measures among parents and young children during the COVID-19 pandemic: a longitudinal cohort study

“…Studies have found that those able to work from home or who had flexible work arrangements were better able to adhere to public health preventive measures (Brankston et al, 2020;Papageorge et al, 2021;Papanastasiou et al, 2020) while those living in apartments were less able to adhere (Papanastasiou et al, 2020). Consistent with these results, we found that parents who were essential workers and parents and children living in apartments were less able to adhere to public health preventive measures.…”

“…Interestingly, living in a household with 5 or more people predicted an increased likelihood of adherence in children, which could be due to the greater need to practice public health preventive measures in larger households to protect household members or less need to play or participate in activities outside the home. We did not find evidence that a family history of chronic disease predicted adherence, in contrast with Papanastasiou et al (2020) who found that chronic health conditions related to risk of complications from COVID-19 were associated with adherence to public health preventive measures (Papanastasiou et al, 2020). This could be due to our family history of chronic disease variable having been defined more broadly and to the younger age of our study participants.…”

“…Previous research analyses investigating the relationship between the SDOH and adherence to public health preventive measures during COVID-19 found that younger adults and males had less adherence (Brankston et al, 2020;Brouard et al, 2020;Coroiu et al, 2020;Papanastasiou et al, 2020). We found modest but non-significant evidence that younger parents were less likely to adhere.…”

“…There have been several studies conducted globally on the predictors of adherence to public health preventive measures, most of which have been in adults (Barari et al, 2020;Brankston et al, 2020;Brzezinski et al, 2020;Carvalho et al, 2020;Coroiu et al, 2020;Farias & Pilati, 2020;Freeman et al, 2020;Harper et al, 2020;Papageorge et al, 2021;Papanastasiou et al, 2020;Travaglino & Moon, 2020). However, little is known about adherence to public health preventive measures in Canada, in particular among parents and young children.…”

Correcting Perceived Social Distancing Norms to Combat COVID-19

“…1 We are aware of no prior study recommend social-norm-based interventions to combat the COVID-19 pandemic, suggesting they are most effective when specific to an individual's social identity (Centola, 2011) or promoted by those central in a social network (Kim et al, 2015). Some studies measure respondent perceptions of social distancing norms (Papanastasiou et al, 2020;Xie et al, 2020;Arroyos-Calvera et al, 2021). Alsan et al (2020) find that correcting social norms about COVID-19 mask-wearing leads to more correct norm perceptions.…”