Series: Occasional Papers. 2022.
Author: Eduardo Gutiérrez and Enrique Moral-Benito.
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Abstract
In order to curb the advance of COVID-19, Royal Decree-Law 10/2020 of 29 March 2020
stipulated the temporary shutdown of all activities considered non-essential between
30 March and 9 April 2020. This paper uses municipal-level information to quantify the
short-term effects of this measure both on employment and on containing the pandemic.
Specifically, we analyse the relationship between the share of firms forced to shut down in
each municipality and changes in Social Security registrations along with new COVID-19
cases in April. The results suggest that those municipalities most affected by the nonessential
activity shutdown endured higher reductions in employment but, at the same
time, they also witnessed a lower propagation of the pandemic during April. Finally,
other characteristics such as ageing, colder temperatures, higher population density and
proximity to the provincial capital are found to be associated with a higher incidence of
COVID-19 at the municipality level.