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COVID-19 Lockdown Policies at the State and Local Level

Author

Listed:
  • Austan Goolsbee

    (University of Chicago - Booth School of Business; NBER)

  • Nicole Bei Luo

    (University of Chicago - Booth School of Business)

  • Roxanne Nesbitt

    (Yale University)

  • Chad Syverson

    (University of Chicago - Booth School of Business; NBER)

Abstract

This paper describes a new publicly available dataset on shutdown orders and related policies at the county and city level across the United States during the early part of the COVID-19 crisis, from March through May of 2020. In hundreds of counties around the country, local governments issued sheltering orders before their state did. Larger counties and counties with higher incidence of the disease and lower GOP vote shares were more likely to enact early sheltering policies. Basic analysis of the economic impact of the orders indicates that the county-level information is important and substantially more accurate than using state-level information alone.

Suggested Citation

  • Austan Goolsbee & Nicole Bei Luo & Roxanne Nesbitt & Chad Syverson, 2020. "COVID-19 Lockdown Policies at the State and Local Level," Working Papers 2020-116, Becker Friedman Institute for Research In Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:bfi:wpaper:2020-116
    as

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    File URL: https://repec.bfi.uchicago.edu/RePEc/pdfs/BFI_WP_2020116.pdf
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Brzezinski, Adam & Deiana, Guido & Kecht, Valentin & Van Dijcke, David, 2020. "The COVID-19 Pandemic: Government vs. Community Action Across the United States," INET Oxford Working Papers 2020-06, Institute for New Economic Thinking at the Oxford Martin School, University of Oxford.
    2. Goolsbee, Austan & Syverson, Chad, 2021. "Fear, lockdown, and diversion: Comparing drivers of pandemic economic decline 2020," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 193(C).
    3. Sumedha Gupta & Thuy D. Nguyen & Felipe Lozano Rojas & Shyam Raman & Byungkyu Lee & Ana Bento & Kosali I. Simon & Coady Wing, 2020. "Tracking Public and Private Responses to the COVID-19 Epidemic: Evidence from State and Local Government Actions," NBER Working Papers 27027, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. Diane Alexander & Ezra Karger, 2023. "Do Stay-at-Home Orders Cause People to Stay at Home? Effects of Stay-at-Home Orders on Consumer Behavior," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 105(4), pages 1017-1027, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. John Gathergood & Fabian Gunzinger & Benedict Guttman-Kenney & Edika Quispe-Torreblanca & Neil Stewart, 2020. "Levelling Down and the COVID-19 Lockdowns: Uneven Regional Recovery in UK Consumer Spending," Papers 2012.09336, arXiv.org, revised Dec 2020.
    2. Eric Reinhart & Daniel L. Chen, 2021. "Association of Jail Decarceration and Anticontagion Policies With COVID-19 Case Growth Rates in US Counties," Post-Print hal-03344620, HAL.
    3. John Gathergood & Benedict Guttman-Kenney, 2020. "The English Patient: Evaluating Local Lockdowns Using Real-Time COVID-19 & Consumption Data," Papers 2010.04129, arXiv.org, revised Jan 2021.
    4. Barrot, Jean-Noël & Bonelli, Maxime & Grassi, Basile & Sauvagnat, Julien, 2024. "Causal effects of closing businesses in a pandemic," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 154(C).
    5. Richard T. Carson & Samuel L. Carson & Thayne K. Dye & Samuel A. Mayfield & Daniel C. Moyer & Chu A. Yu, 2021. "COVID-19’s U.S. Temperature Response Profile," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 80(4), pages 675-704, December.
    6. Mathijs de Vaan & Saqib Mumtaz & Abhishek Nagaraj & Sameer B. Srivastava, 2021. "Social Learning in the COVID-19 Pandemic: Community Establishments’ Closure Decisions Follow Those of Nearby Chain Establishments," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 67(7), pages 4446-4454, July.
    7. Katharine G. Abraham & Mohammad Ashoori & Aref Darzi & Nathalie Gonzalez-Prieto & John C. Haltiwanger & Aliakbar Kabiri & Erkut Y. Ozbay, 2025. "Using Mobile Device Activity Data to Study Local Variation in Onsite Work," NBER Chapters, in: The Changing Nature of Work, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    8. Baker, Scott R. & Davis, Steven J. & Levy, Jeffrey A., 2022. "State-level economic policy uncertainty," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 132(C), pages 81-99.
    9. Goolsbee, Austan & Syverson, Chad, 2021. "Fear, lockdown, and diversion: Comparing drivers of pandemic economic decline 2020," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 193(C).
    10. Wei Kang & Qingfang Wang, 2023. "The Impact of COVID-19 on Small Businesses in the US: A Longitudinal Study from a Regional Perspective," International Regional Science Review, , vol. 46(3), pages 235-265, April.
    11. Cicala, Steve, 2023. "JUE Insight: Powering work from home," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 133(C).
    12. Abu Bakkar Siddique & Kingsley E. Haynes & Rajendra Kulkarni & Meng-Hao Li, 2023. "Regional poverty and infection disease: early exploratory evidence from the COVID-19 pandemic," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 70(1), pages 209-236, February.
    13. Francesco Furno, 2020. "The Testing Multiplier: Fear vs Containment," Papers 2012.03834, arXiv.org.

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