Fast and local: How lockdown policies affect the spread and severity of covid-19

We analyse whether the various types of lockdowns implemented around the world mitigated the surge in infections and reduced mortality related to the Covid-19, and whether their effectiveness differed in developing versus developed countries. Our data cover 184 countries from December 31st 2019 to May 4th 2020, and identifies when lockdowns were adopted, along with confirmed cases and deaths. We find that reducing movements within countries has been effective in developed economies – averting about 650,000 deaths – but not in developing ones, that countries that acted fast fared better, and that closing borders has had no appreciable effect, even after 50 days.