On April 16th, The White House launched "Opening up America Again" (OuAA) campaign while many U.S. counties had stay-at-home orders in place. We created a panel data set of 1,563 U.S. counties to study the impact of U.S. counties' stay-at-home orders on community mobility before and after The White House's campaign to reopen the country. Our results suggest that before the OuAA campaign stay-at-home orders were effective in decreasing time spent at retail recreation places and in increasing time spent at home. These stay-at-home orders were less effective in more conservative counties. We further find that the OuAA campaign significantly increased time spent at retail recreation places and decreased time spent at home particularly in conservative counties . However, in conservative counties with stay-at-home orders in place, OuAA campaign was less effective when compared to conservative counties without stay-at-home orders. These findings signal promising news for local (county and state) authorities. That is , even when the federal government is reopening the country, the local authorities that enforced stay-at-home restrictions were to some extent effective.
On April 16th, The White House launched "Opening up America Again" (OuAA) campaign while many U.S. counties had stay-at-home orders in place. We created a panel data set of 1,563 U.S. counties to study the impact of U.S. counties' stay-at-home orders on community mobility before and after The White House's campaign to reopen the country. Our results suggest that before the OuAA campaign stay-at-home orders brought down time spent in retail and recreation businesses by about 27\% for typical conservative and liberal counties. However, after the launch of OuAA campaign, the time spent at retail and recreational businesses in a typical conservative county increased significantly more than in liberal counties (15\% increase in a typical conservative county Vs. 9\% increase in a typical liberal county). We also found that in conservative counties with stay-at-home orders in place, time spent at retail and recreational businesses increased less than that of conservative counties without stay-at-home orders. These findings illuminate to what extent residents' political ideology could determine to what extent they follow local orders and to what extent the White House's OuAA campaign polarized the obedience between liberal and conservative counties. The silver lining in our study is that even when the federal government was reopening the country, the local authorities that enforced stay-at-home restrictions were to some extent effective.
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were effective in decreasing time spent at retail
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recreation places and in increasing time spent at home. These stay-at-home orders were less effective in more conservative counties. We further find that the OuAA campaign significantly increased
brought down time spent in retail and recreation businesses by about 27\% for typical conservative and liberal counties. However, after the launch of OuAA campaign, the
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recreation places and decreased time spent at home particularly in
and recreational businesses in a typical conservative county increased significantly more than in liberal counties (15\% increase in a typical conservative county Vs. 9\% increase in a typical liberal county). We also found that in
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. However, in conservative counties
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OuAA campaign was less effective when compared to
time spent at retail and recreational businesses increased less than that of
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signal promising news for local (county and state) authorities. That is ,
illuminate to what extent residents' political ideology could determine to what extent they follow local orders and to what extent the White House's OuAA campaign polarized the obedience between liberal and conservative counties. The silver lining in our study is that
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was