National Bureau of Economic Research
April 2020
HKS Authors
See citation below for complete author information.
Professor of Public Policy, HKS; Harold Hitchings Burbank Professor of Political Economy, FAS
Abstract
This paper describes a weekly economic index (WEI) developed to track the rapid economic developments associated with the response to the novel Coronavirus in the United States. The WEI shows a strong and sudden decline in economic activity starting in the week ending March 21, 2020. In the most recent week ending March 28, the WEI indicates economic activity has fallen further to -6.19% scaled to 4 quarter growth in GDP.
Citation
Lewis, Daniel, Karel Mertens, and James H. Stock. "US Economic Activity During the Early Weeks of the SARS-Cov-2 Outbreak." National Bureau of Economic Research, April 2020.