Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/240487 
Year of Publication: 
2020
Series/Report no.: 
IFN Working Paper No. 1344
Publisher: 
Research Institute of Industrial Economics (IFN), Stockholm
Abstract: 
Limiting the spread of contagious diseases can involve both government-managed and voluntary efforts. Governments have a number of policy options beyond direct intervention that can shape individuals' responses to a pandemic and its associated costs. During its first wave of COVID-19 cases, Singapore was among a few countries that attempted to adjust behavior through the public provision of detailed case information. Singapore's Ministry of Health maintained and shared precise, daily information detailing local travel behavior and residences of COVID-19 cases. We use this transparency policy along with device-level cellphone data to quantify how local and national COVID-19 case announcements trigger differential behavioral changes. We find evidence that individuals are three times more responsive to outbreaks in granularly defined locales. Conditional on keeping infection rates at a manageable level, the results suggest economic value in this type of transparency by mitigating precautionary activity reductions.
Subjects: 
COVID-19
Transparency
Precautionary behavior
JEL: 
H12
I18
R50
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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