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Licensed Unlicensed Requires Authentication Published by De Gruyter May 22, 2020

Effectiveness of Corona Lockdowns: Evidence for a Number of Countries

  • Stefan Homburg EMAIL logo
From the journal The Economists’ Voice

Abstract

The paper assesses the effectiveness of the large-scale lockdowns that took place during the SARS-CoV-2 (corona) pandemic. Countries considered include the United States, South Korea, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, Spain, and Sweden. Our research strategy utilizes the fact that fatal outcomes follow infections with a delay of 23 days. Therefore, the dates of the actual infections can be inferred from the data. The results suggest that lockdowns were superfluous and ineffective.

JEL Classification: I18

Corresponding author: Stefan Homburg, School of Economics and Management, Leibniz University of Hannover, Hannover, Germany, E-mail:

References

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Received: 2020-04-17
Accepted: 2020-04-22
Published Online: 2020-05-22

© 2020 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

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