We hope that you find this page informative. We also want to thank everyone that has helped to put together the database so far and those that will help to maintain and improve it going forward. In particular, we want to thank the Tobin Center for Economic Policy for their generous financial support.
This website tracks business and related restrictions issued by all U.S. states and counties in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. It is a joint project of the Tobin Center for Economic Policy and the Yale School of Management. Our goal is to produce a comprehensive database that researchers can use to help determine which restrictions have proven useful and which have not. To date, it includes over 149,268 dates on which state and local restrictions were started, modified or ended. Ultimately, we hope this will help policy officials make better decisions.
Data are being updated on an on-going basis, as new policies are introduced and as we fill in prior policies that might have been missed. If you find any errors or omissions in the data, we would appreciate your letting us know so that we can update our database accordingly. More accurate data will result in more accurate research that is helpful to everyone.
You can let us know about any corrections we should make. Please contact Professor Matthew Spiegel at matthew.spiegel@yale.edu.
Since the spring of 2020 we have employed a large team of research assistants to gather and check the data. That cost continues to build with our ongoing efforts. You can help us to maintain the data and expand it by purchasing an individual or institutional use license. Anyone purchasing a license will obtain a machine-readable copy of our data. If you just want to help fund this project you can also donate directly to it. Please contact Professor Matthew Spiegel at matthew.spiegel@yale.edu for details about obtaining a license, its cost, and payment options.
The project is led by Professors Matthew Spiegel and Heather Tookes. Their initial paper about the restrictions ‘Business Restrictions and COVID Fatalities’ can be downloaded at https://doi.org/10.1093/rfs/hhab069 and their subsequent article ‘All or Nothing? Partial Business Shutdowns and COVID-19 Fatality Growth’ at https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0262925. Financial and institutional support from the Yale School of Management, the Tobin Center for Economic Policy, and the International Center for Finance have made this research endeavor possible. Web page design and management are led by the SOM IT Development & Operations Team.
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If you find any errors or omissions in the data, we would appreciate your letting us know so that we can update our database accordingly. More accurate data will result in more accurate research that is helpful to everyone.
Please contact Professor Matthew Spiegel at matthew.spiegel@yale.edu.