Mobility under the COVID-19 Pandemic: Asymmetric Effects across Gender and Age

By Francesca Caselli, Francesco Grigoli, Damiano Sandri, Antonio Spilimbergo

December 11, 2020

Preview Citation

Format: Chicago

Francesca Caselli, Francesco Grigoli, Damiano Sandri, and Antonio Spilimbergo. Mobility under the COVID-19 Pandemic: Asymmetric Effects across Gender and Age, (USA: International Monetary Fund, 2020) accessed November 8, 2024

Disclaimer: IMF Working Papers describe research in progress by the author(s) and are published to elicit comments and to encourage debate. The views expressed in IMF Working Papers are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the views of the IMF, its Executive Board, or IMF management.

Summary

Lockdowns and voluntary social distancing led to significant reduction in people’s mobility. Yet, there is scant evidence on the heterogeneous effects across segments of the population. Using unique mobility indicators based on anonymized and aggregate data provided by Vodafone for Italy, Portugal, and Spain, we find that lockdowns had a larger impact on the mobility of women and younger cohorts. Younger people also experienced a sharper drop in mobility in response to rising COVID-19 infections. Our findings, which are consistent across estimation methods and robust to a variety of tests, warn about a possible widening of gender and inter-generational inequality and provide important inputs for the formulation of targeted policies.

Subject: Aging, COVID-19, Education, Gender, Women

Keywords: Age., Government lockdown, Impact of lockdown, Lockdown, Lockdown impulse, Lockdown measure, Lockdown stringency, Mobility, WP

Publication Details

Pages:

32
Volume:

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DOI:

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Issue:

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Series:

Working Paper No. 2020/282
Stock No:

WPIEA2020282
ISBN:

9781513563961
ISSN:

1018-5941

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