Intergenerational Residence Patterns and Covid-19 Fatalities in the EU and the Us

We study how patterns of intergenerational residence possibly influence fatalities from Covid-19. We use aggregate data on Covid-19 deaths, the share of young adults living with their parents, and a number of other statistics, for the 27 countries in the European Union, the UK, and all US states. Controlling for population size, we find that more people died from Covid in countries or states with higher rates of intergenerational co-residence. This positive correlation persists even when controlling for date of first death, presence of lockdown, Covid tests pc, hospital beds per capita, proportion of elderly, GDP pc, government's political orientation, percentage urban, and rental prices. The positive association between co-residence and fatalities is led by the US. Our estimates pass the Oster test for selection on unobservables.