The Role of Social Trust in Citizen Mobility During COVID-19

In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, governments worldwide have implemented physical distancing requirements, such as stay-at-home orders, to reduce people’s mobility in order to contain the spread of the virus. However, to this date it is still unclear as to what drives people's compliance with such government interventions. This paper provides preliminary evidence that social trust plays a key role in the response of citizens to the COVID-19 pandemic. I document that citizen mobility reduced significantly more in countries with low social trust, even when controlling for a number of confounding factors.