Welfare costs of travel reductions within the United States due to COVID-19

Abstract

Using daily county-level travel data within the United States, this paper investigates the welfare costs of travel reductions due to coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) for the period between 20 January and 5 September 2020. Welfare of individuals (related to their travel) is measured by their inter-county and intra-county travel, where travel costs are measured by the corresponding distance measures. Important transport policy implications follow regarding how policymakers can act to mitigate welfare costs of travel reductions without worsening the COVID-19 spread.