Abstract
This paper addresses the substantial role of clan loyalty in promoting COVID-19 diffusion in China. Using a city–date panel dataset of observations from 183 cities (prefecture-level and above) in the period of the special long holiday of Chinese New Year in 2020 (January 24–March 1), we find that regions with higher clan loyalty have more COVID-19 cases than regions with lower clan loyalty. A one standard deviation increase in clan loyalty is associated with an 8.1% increase in COVID-19 cases. We further document that clan loyalty drives COVID-19 cases by promoting mass gatherings, exploiting a staggered difference-in-differences (DID) regression based on city community-management policy shocks. Our paper provides novel evidence of one negative public health consequence of clan loyalty, namely, its aggravation of COVID-19 cases.
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