The effect of compulsory face mask policies on community mobility in Germany

Roxanne J. Kovacs, Maurice Dunaiski and Janne Tukiainen

LSE Research Online Documents on Economics from London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library

Abstract: There is an ongoing debate about face masks being made compulsory in public spaces to contain COVID-19. A key concern is that such policies could undermine efforts to maintain social distancing and reduce mobility. We provide first evidence on the impact of compulsory face mask policies on community mobility. We exploit the staggered implementation of policies by German states during the first wave of the pandemic and measure mobility using geo-located smartphone data. We find that compulsory face mask policies led to a short-term reduction in community mobility, with no significant medium-term effects. We can rule out even small increases in mobility.

Keywords: Covid-19; coronavirus; face masks; social distancing; community mobility (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D90 H10 I12 I18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 29 pages
Date: 2023-10-11
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hea, nep-inv and nep-ure
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Published in Scandinavian Journal of Economics, 11, October, 2023, 125(4), pp. 1027 - 1055. ISSN: 0347-0520

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http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/120492/ Open access version. (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: The effect of compulsory face mask policies on community mobility in Germany (2023)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ehl:lserod:120492

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