Auckland firm performance in Covid-19 lockdown

Auckland – New Zealand’s largest city – was subject to region-specific lockdowns to prevent the spread of Covid-19 during the pandemic. We estimate the impact of these lockdowns on firm sales revenue and expenses using a matched difference-in-difference dataset that covers almost all firms in the private sector, and with a control group of Christchurch firms. Estimated effects assume an unlikely best-case scenario where Covid-19 doesn’t impact the Auckland regional economy in the absence of lockdowns. Under this assumption, we find the initial effect on Auckland sales to be similar in magnitude to the impact of the Canterbury Earthquakes on the most affected firms, though with shorter duration matching the length of the lockdown restrictions. Raw statistics are consistent with the initial nationwide lockdown being more impactful – and relatively well-navigated by Auckland firms – but don’t account for the myriad of factors that prevented business-as-usual during the early stages of the pandemic.