Do COVID-19 Policies Affect Mobility Behaviour? Evidence from 75 Canadian and American Cities

Abstract

We construct a new measure of the aggressiveness of COVID-19 policies in 75 Canadian and American cities and estimate the effect of these policies on mobility patterns in each city. Using a new dataset of five municipal COVID-19 policy indicators for each of our 75 cities, combined with 11 provincial/state policy indicators, we estimate a daily measure of the “aggressiveness” of the provincial/state and municipal COVID-19 policy mix in each city. We then estimate the effects of these policies on subsequent mobility behaviour using dynamic time series models. We find strong evidence of policy effects on subsequent mobility behaviour, but few overall differences between Canadian and American cities. We discuss the significance of our findings both for COVID-19 policy research and for other comparative urban policy research in multilevel policy environments.