The Effects of the Government Policies on the Spread of the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

The study aims to determine whether government policies to control population mobility have been successful in the fight against the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Policies implemented by governments for controlling population mobility are identified with the Stringency Index prepared by Oxford University. Population mobility is observed through data provided by Google Community Mobility Report. The success of countries in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic is measured by the Reproduction Rate. The intersection of valid data covering 104 countries is gathered from databases of relevant official websites for the period between the date of reaching the 100th cumulative case and the date 360 days later. The data is analyzed by conducting panel data analysis method to test the hypothesis. Results show that the Stringency Index demonstrating the stringency of government policies implemented by countries to prevent the spreading of pandemic affected human mobility dimensions significantly and reversely. Human mobility dimensions have a reverse and significant impact on staying at home at different levels at the 95% confidence interval. Furthermore, a significant relationship with a very small bi value (-0.00008) emerges between staying at home and the Reproduction Rate in the reverse direction.