COVID-19 and federalism in India : capturing the effects of state and central responses on mobility.

Kumar, Himangshu and Nataraj, Manikantha and Kundu, Srikanta (2022) COVID-19 and federalism in India : capturing the effects of state and central responses on mobility. The European Journal of Development Research, 34 (5). pp. 2463-2492. ISSN 0957-8811

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Abstract

In response to the rapidly spreading COVID-19 pandemic, governments resorted to containment and closure measures to reduce population mobility and ensure social distancing. Initially, India’s state governments enacted varying social-distancing policies until the Central government overrode states to impose a nationwide lockdown on 24th March. This paper examines the relative impact of state- and centrallevel social-distancing policies on changes in mobility, comparing the periods before and after the national lockdown. A district-level panel dataset is formed, compiling data on social-distancing policies and changes in population mobility patterns. Panel regressions reveal that the incremental effect of each social-distancing policy varied across states in the pre-24th March period. The national lockdown led to much larger, though varying, reductions in mobility across all states. Overall, states which were able to achieve higher compliance in terms of reducing mobility in the prelockdown phase performed better in the national lockdown.

Item Type:	Article
Authors:	Kumar, Himangshu and Nataraj, Manikantha and Kundu, Srikanta
Document Language:	Language English
Subjects:	Social sciences > Political Science > Systems of governments & states
Divisions:	Azim Premji University - Ranchi > School of Development
Full Text Status:	Public
URI:	http://publications.azimpremjiuniversity.edu.in/id/eprint/7722
Publisher URL:	https://doi.org/10.1057/s41287-021-00463-4

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