Social homogeneity and spread of pandemic: Evidence from India

Compliance with the public health guidelines during pandemics requires coordinated community actions which might be undermined in socially diverse areas. In this paper, we assess the relationship between caste-group homogeneity and spread of COVID-19 infection during the nationwide lockdown and unlocking period in India. Estimates using daily data show that caste-homogeneous districts experienced slower growth in infection for about 2.5 months since the beginning of the lockdown. The findings further indicate that caste-homogeneous districts took more days to cross the concentration thresholds of 50-500 cases. In terms of mechanisms, we find suggestive evidence of lower mobility in caste-homogeneous localities during the lockdown period, which would have slowed infection spread. We also find a significantly higher engagement of frontline health workers in these districts after the outbreak. Our findings reveal how caste-group homogeneity can be used to identify potential hotspots and emphasize the importance of health workers, and decentralized policy response.