Four Stylized Facts about COVID-19

Andrew Atkeson, Karen Kopecky and Tao Zha

No 2020-15, FRB Atlanta Working Paper from Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta

Abstract: We document four facts about the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic that are relevant for those studying the impact of nonpharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) on COVID-19 transmission. First, across all countries and U.S. states that we study, the growth rates of daily deaths from COVID-19 fell from a wide range of initially high levels to levels close to zero within 20–30 days after each region experienced 25 cumulative deaths. Second, after this initial period, growth rates of daily deaths have hovered around zero or below everywhere in the world. Third, the cross section standard deviation of growth rates of daily deaths across locations fell very rapidly in the first 10 days of the epidemic and has remained at a relatively low level since then. Fourth, when interpreted through a range of epidemiological models, these first three facts about the growth rate of COVID deaths imply that both the effective reproduction numbers and transmission rates of COVID-19 fell from widely dispersed initial levels, and the effective reproduction number has hovered around one after the first 30 days of the epidemic virtually everywhere in the world. We argue that failing to account for these four stylized facts may result in overstating the importance of policy-mandated NPIs for shaping the progression of this deadly pandemic.

Keywords: COVID-19; death; dispersion; NPI policy; reproduction number; transmission rate (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C01 C02 C11 I1 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 43
Date: 2020-08-26
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hea
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (16)

Published in 2020

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Related works:
Journal Article: FOUR STYLIZED FACTS ABOUT COVID‐19 (2024)
Working Paper: Four Stylized Facts about COVID-19 (2020)
Working Paper: Four Stylized Facts about COVID-19 (2020)
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DOI: 10.29338/wp2020-15

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