Bilgel, FıratKarahasan, Burhan Can2023-10-182023-10-182023Bilgel, F., & Karahasan, B. C. (2023). Understanding Covid-19 Mobility Through Human Capital: A Unified Causal Framework. Computational Economics, 1-41.0927-70991572-9974https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11779/1973https://doi.org/10.1007/s10614-023-10359-6This paper seeks to identify the causal impact of educational human capital on social distancing behavior at workplace in Turkey using district-level data for the period of April 2020 - February 2021. We adopt a unified causal framework, predicated on domain knowledge, theory-justified constraints anda data-driven causal structure discovery using causal graphs. We answer our causal query by employing machine learning prediction algorithms; instrumental variables in the presence of latent confounding and Heckman's model in the presence of selection bias. Results show that educated regions are able to distance-work and educational human capital is a key factor in reducing workplace mobility, possibly through its impact on employment. This pattern leads to higher workplace mobility for less educated regions and translates into higher Covid-19 infection rates. The future of the pandemic lies in less educated segments of developing countries and calls for public health action to decrease its unequal and pervasive impact.eninfo:eu-repo/semantics/openAccessC36Directed acyclic graphsMachine learningCausal structure discoveryJ68Instrumental variablesC14Sample selectionDo-calculusWorkplace mobilityJ62Article10.1007/s10614-023-10359-62-s2.0-85148465761