Business Power and Mobility to Workplaces in Italian Regions during the First COVID-19 Wave

The diffusion of the pandemic and the severity of COVID-19-relat­ed measures were very uneven across regions; however, the intensity of the restrictions was not always tightly linked with the strength of the pandem­ic. Economic interests and business power might have played a role in defin­ing political responses at the local level, which are in turn able to shape the intensity of work-related mobility. This article aims at investigating wheth­er regional variations in the stringency of COVID-19-related measures have actual impacts on work-related mobility and whether there is an independ­ent effect of the pressure exerted by unions and businesses, assuming mobil­ity to be governed concurrently by stringency, pandemic intensity, and pres­sure. Through the analysis of original regional-level indicators of stringency and public pressure, we demonstrate that trade unions’ pressure is associat­ed with a decrease in work-related mobility during the first COVID-19 wave in Italy.