IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/soceps/v94y2024ics0038012124001241.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Shutting down to save lives: A regression discontinuity analysis of non-essential business closure

Author

Listed:
  • Gaggero, Alessio
  • Mesa-Pedrazas, Ángela
  • Fernández-Pérez, Ángel

Abstract

This article quantifies the impact of the non-essential business closure policy implemented in the Spanish region of Andalusia during the COVID-19 pandemic between January and May 2021. Taking advantage of the fact that municipalities were assigned a two-week closure of non-essential businesses on the basis of whether the 14-day infection rate (per 100,000 inhabitants) was above a predetermined cutoff value of 1,000, we use a regression discontinuity design to estimate the causal impact of the policy on new COVID-19 cases and deaths. Using weekly administrative data, the estimates suggest that, on average, the policy produced a 23 percent reduction in new COVID-19 cases and a 2 percent decrease in new COVID-19 deaths. Notably, the heterogeneity analysis reveals that the policy was more effective in rural areas than in urban areas. Overall, this study provides compelling evidence that shutting down businesses served as an effective tool to counter the COVID-19 pandemic.

Suggested Citation

  • Gaggero, Alessio & Mesa-Pedrazas, Ángela & Fernández-Pérez, Ángel, 2024. "Shutting down to save lives: A regression discontinuity analysis of non-essential business closure," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 94(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:soceps:v:94:y:2024:i:c:s0038012124001241
    DOI: 10.1016/j.seps.2024.101925
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0038012124001241
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.seps.2024.101925?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    COVID-19; Non-essential business closure; Spain; 14-Day infection rate; COVID-19 cases and deaths; Regression discontinuity;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I1 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health
    • I18 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Government Policy; Regulation; Public Health
    • H12 - Public Economics - - Structure and Scope of Government - - - Crisis Management

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:soceps:v:94:y:2024:i:c:s0038012124001241. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/seps .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.