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. 2021 Jun 19;34(4):1321–1354. doi: 10.1007/s00148-021-00848-z

Table 2.

Likelihood of stay-at-home order implementation — main trust variable

Likelihood of implementing a stay-at-home order
(1) (2) (3) (4) (5)
Panel A: Trust variables
Trust people –0.054 –0.079 –0.045 –0.043 –0.054
(0.094) (0.094) (0.098) (0.097) (0.096)
Religious –0.080** –0.093** –0.095** –0.100*** –0.077**
(0.038) (0.037) (0.038) (0.038) (0.037)
Neighborhood fear 0.158* 0.138 0.081 0.081 0.056
(0.094) (0.094) (0.099) (0.100) (0.099)
Democrats –0.066 –0.080 –0.104 –0.114 –0.118
(0.080) (0.080) (0.081) (0.081) (0.080)
Independent –0.029 –0.037 –0.044 –0.047 –0.039
(0.083) (0.082) (0.082) (0.082) (0.080)
Panel B: Geographic variables
With airport 0.059** -0.003 -0.008 0.004 0.014
(0.028) (0.032) (0.032) (0.032) (0.032)
Coastal county 0.065*** 0.040* 0.036 0.039* 0.022
(0.021) (0.023) (0.024) (0.024) (0.024)
Capital county –0.111** –0.140*** –0.145*** –0.148*** –0.131***
(0.048) (0.048) (0.048) (0.047) (0.047)
Panel C: Demographic variables
Population 0.048*** 0.050*** 0.050*** 0.049***
(0.015) (0.015) (0.015) (0.015)
Population density –0.012 –0.028 –0.048* –0.069**
(per 10K) (0.024) (0.026) (0.029) (0.029)
Urban share –0.056 –0.049 –0.036 –0.028
(0.075) (0.077) (0.077) (0.076)
Elderly share –0.212 –0.238 –0.212 –0.214
(0.275) (0.281) (0.280) (0.275)
Male share 0.368 0.483 0.468 0.158
(0.493) (0.504) (0.501) (0.499)
Panel D: Economic variables
Per capita income 0.116 0.105 0.096
(0.106) (0.106) (0.106)
Share below poverty 0.588* 0.625* 0.578*
(0.346) (0.347) (0.345)
Share above college –0.162 –0.146 –0.243
(0.193) (0.192) (0.190)
Panel E: Epidemiological variables
Cases per population 0.011 0.018**
(per 10K) (0.008) (0.008)
Panel F: Political variables
Democrat governor 0.086***
(0.021)
Observations 434 432 432 432 431
R-squared 0.071 0.115 0.122 0.137 0.169

The dependent variable is a dummy that takes the value of one if a county implemented a stay-at-home order and zero otherwise. A total of 20 counties (in our GSS sample) did not implement a stay-at-home order. Coefficients in all columns are derived from ordinary least squares regressions. In column 1, we include a set of demographic variables. We sequentially add our sets of economic, epidemiological, and political variables in columns 2–5. Panel E includes COVID-19 cases per 10,000 one day prior order implementation. For counties that did not implement a stay-at-home order, we proxy this variable by the average number of cases (one day prior implementation) of other counties Robust standard errors in parentheses: *** p< 0.01; ** p< 0.05; * p< 0.1