How Early? Worldwide Evidence from Early Mask Mandates and Other Policy Interventions on COVID-19 Infection and Death

To understand the extent to which a policy mandate’s early adoption is crucial in crisis management, we leverage unique worldwide data that record the daily evolution of policy mandate adoptions and COVID-19 infection and mortality rates. The analysis shows that the mask mandate, especially its early adoption, is consistently associated with lower infection rates in both the short and long term. By contrast, the other five policy instruments—domestic lockdowns, international travel bans, mass gathering bans, and restaurant and school closures—show weaker efficacy. Also, governments prepared for a public health crisis with stronger resilience or capacity and those with stronger collectivist cultures were quicker to adopt nationwide mask mandates. From a policy design perspective, policymakers need to be cautious about overreacting with less effective instruments and underreacting with more effective ones during uncertain times, especially when not all interventions have the same efficacy and cost