Private Precaution and Public Restrictions: What Drives Social Distancing and Industry Foot Traffic in the COVID-19 Era?
This paper analyzes cell phone data from March through mid May, finding that private, self-regulating changes in behavior explained about 75% of the decline in foot traffic across most industries, while restrictive regulation (including school closures) had more influence on essential retail foot traffic and the fraction of cell phones that remained at home all day.
Christopher J. Cronin & William N. Evans, National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper No. 27531
July, 2020