Replication Data for: Bowling Alone or Masking Together? The Role of Social Capital in Excess Death Rates from COVID19

Abstract: Much attention on the spread and impact of the ongoing pandemic has focused on institutional factors such as government capacity along with population level characteristics such as race, income and age. This paper draws on a growing body of evidence that bonding, bridging, and linking social capital - the horizontal and vertical ties that bind societies together - impact public health to explain why some US counties have seen higher (or lower) excess deaths during the COVID19 pandemic than others. Drawing on county-level reports from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) since February 2020, we calculated the number of excess deaths per county compared to 2018. Starting with a balanced panel dataset of county observations over time, we used coarsened exact matching to create a smaller but more similar set of communities which differ primarily in terms of social capital. Controlling for a number of factors, including mobility, politics and governance, health care quality, and demographic characteristics, we find that both bonding and linking social capital reduce the toll of COVID19 on communities. Our findings bring with them policy implications for public health officials, local government officials, and civil society organizations.