Social capital and vaccination compliance: Evidence from Italy

Exploiting high-frequency vaccination data for COVID-19 and social capital measures at the municipal level in Italy between January and October 2021, this paper estimates the effect of social capital on vaccination compliance. We find that weekly vaccination coverage increased up to 1.60 percentage points more in municipalities with higher social capital. Results do not differ by gender and the effect is mainly driven by younger generations. Our findings shed light on the role of social capital as a driver of health protective behavior.