Efficacy of Non-Pharmacological Interventions Before COVID Mass Vaccination: An Open Data Study Across 185 Countries

Andreas G. F. Hoepner, Robert Hoepner, Markus Leippold, Ming-Tsung Lin and Yanan Lin
Additional contact information
Andreas G. F. Hoepner: Smurfit Graduate Business School, University College Dublin; European Commission's Platform on Sustainable Finance
Robert Hoepner: University of Bern - Bern University Hospital
Markus Leippold: University of Zurich; Swiss Finance Institute
Ming-Tsung Lin: University of Essex
Yanan Lin: China Europe International Business School (CEIBS)

No 23-17, Swiss Finance Institute Research Paper Series from Swiss Finance Institute

Abstract: Various non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) were adopted by countries worldwide to contain the transmission of COVID-19. But their implementation raises a debate on the effectiveness of these mitigation measures. Studying 13 types of NPIs with the daily data of 185 countries from January to December 2020, we find NPIs, in general, are effective in reducing the COVID-19 reproduction rate. But strikingly, we see the set of effective NPIs is rather regional-specific, and only a few (1--4 out of 13) NPIs seem effective. Notably, we find NPIs relating to restricting the population’s movement (e.g., stay at home) are less pronounced, while NPIs pertaining to financial support (e.g., debt and contract relief) are more prevailingly effective among different regions. Our results shed light for public-health policymakers to find a balance between the cost and benefits of restrictions and infections.

Keywords: COVID-19; Non-Pharmaceutical Interventions (NPIs); Effective Reproductive Rate (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 51 pages
Date: 2023-03
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4375783 (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:chf:rpseri:rp2317

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Swiss Finance Institute Research Paper Series from Swiss Finance Institute Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Ridima Mittal ().