Socioeconomic disparities in mobility behavior during the COVID-19 pandemic in developing countries

Mobile phone data have played a key role in quantifying human mobility during the COVID-19 pandemic. Existing studies on mobility patterns have primarily focused on regional aggregates in high-income countries, obfuscating the accentuated impact of the pandemic on the most vulnerable populations. By combining geolocation data from mobile phones and population census for 6 middle-income countries across 3 continents between March and December 2020, we uncovered common disparities in the behavioral response to the pandemic across socioeconomic groups. When the pandemic hit, urban users living in low-wealth neighborhoods were less likely to respond by self-isolating at home, relocating to rural areas, or refraining from commuting to work. The gap in the behavioral responses between socioeconomic groups persisted during the entire observation period. Among low-wealth users, those who used to commute to work in high-wealth neighborhoods pre-pandemic were particularly at risk, facing both the reduction in activity in high-wealth neighborhood and being more likely to be affected by public transport closures due to their longer commute. While confinement policies were predominantly country-wide, these results suggest a role for place-based policies informed by mobility data to target aid to the most vulnerable.