The role of COVID-19 in spatial reorganization: Some evidence from Germany

This paper analyzes the role of regional demographic, socioeconomic and political factors on changes in mobility during the COVID-19 pandemic. It provides new empirical evidence for the regional differentiation of lockdown measures and indicates a possible reorganization of spatial economic and social activities beyond the course of the pandemic. Spatial econometric models are analyzed using data from the 401 counties in Germany. Our results show that, for example, current high caseloads are negatively related to changes in mobility, whereas a region's socioeconomic composition and rural location have a positive effect. The political and economic implications of the findings are discussed.