Economic impact of targeted government responses to COVID-19: Evidence from the large-scale clusters in Seoul

Jinwook Shin, Seonghoon Kim, Kanghyock Koh

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    11 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    We estimate the economic impact of South Korea's targeted responses to the large-scale COVID-19 clusters in a highly concentrated business area (Guro) and a highly concentrated entertainment area (Itaewon) in Seoul, respectively. We find that foot traffic and retail sales decreased only within a 300 m radius and recovered to their pre-outbreak level after four weeks in the case of the Guro cluster. The reductions appear to be driven by temporary business closures rather than by citizens' risk avoidance behavior. However, the adverse economic impacts measured by foot traffic and retail sales of another outbreak of the COVID-19 cluster in Itaewon were persistent. Our results imply that the effects of less intense but more targeted COVID-19 interventions, such as pinpointed, temporary closures of businesses, can differ by underlying geographical characteristics.

    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)199-221
    Number of pages23
    JournalJournal of Economic Behavior and Organization
    Volume192
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 2021 Dec

    Bibliographical note

    Funding Information:
    We thank the editor, an associate editor, and an anonymous reviewer, Syngjoo Choi, Dongkyu Chang, Booyuel Kim, Jun Hyung Kim, Euncheol Shin, and the seminar participants at Korea University, and the Korean COVID-19 study group for their various remarks. We are grateful to the Seoul Metropolitan Government Big Data Campus for the data access. This work was supported by the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Korea and the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF-2020S1A3A2A02104190). All the authors have contributed equally and take responsibility for any errors.

    Funding Information:
    We thank the editor, an associate editor, and an anonymous reviewer, Syngjoo Choi, Dongkyu Chang, Booyuel Kim, Jun Hyung Kim, Euncheol Shin, and the seminar participants at Korea University, and the Korean COVID-19 study group for their various remarks. We are grateful to the Seoul Metropolitan Government Big Data Campus for the data access. This work was supported by the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Korea and the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF-2020S1A3A2A02104190). All the authors have contributed equally and take responsibility for any errors.

    Publisher Copyright:
    © 2021 Elsevier B.V.

    Keywords

    • COVID-19
    • Card transaction data
    • Foot traffic
    • Information disclosure
    • Retail sales
    • Risk avoidance

    ASJC Scopus subject areas

    • Economics and Econometrics
    • Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management

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