1. JUE Insight: Measuring movement and social contact with smartphone data: a real-time application to COVID-19
- Author
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Victor Couture, Jessie Handbury, Allison Green, Kevin R. Williams, and Jonathan I. Dingel
- Subjects
Economics and Econometrics ,education.field_of_study ,2019-20 coronavirus outbreak ,Index (economics) ,Social contact ,Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) ,Computer science ,Movement (music) ,05 social sciences ,Population ,Data science ,Urban Studies ,0502 economics and business ,Survey data collection ,050207 economics ,education ,Reliability (statistics) ,050205 econometrics - Abstract
Tracking human activity in real time and at fine spatial scale is particularly valuable during episodes such as the COVID-19 pandemic. In this paper, we discuss the suitability of smartphone data for quantifying movement and social contact. These data cover broad sections of the US population and exhibit pre-pandemic patterns similar to conventional survey data. We develop and make publicly available a location exposure index that summarizes county-to-county movements and a device exposure index that quantifies social contact within venues. We also investigate the reliability of smartphone movement data during the pandemic.
- Published
- 2020