02455cas a2200277 a 4500 AALejournalIMF021312 230101c9999 xx r poo 0 0eng d 5.00 USD 9781513559704 1018-5941 BD-DhAAL BD-DhAAL Franks, Jeffrey. Exiting from Lockdowns : Early Evidence from Reopenings in Europe / Jeffrey Franks, Bertrand Gruss, Carlos Mulas-Granados, Manasa Patnam. Washington, D.C. : International Monetary Fund, 2020. 1 online resource (33 pages) IMF Working Papers <strong>Off-Campus Access:</strong> No User ID or Password Required <strong>On-Campus Access:</strong> No User ID or Password Required Electronic access restricted to authorized BRAC University faculty, staff and students European authorities introduced stringent lockdown measures in early 2020 to reduce the transmission of COVID-19. As the first wave of infection curves flattened and the outbreak appeared controlled, most countries started to reopen their economies albeit using diverse strategies. This paper introduces a novel daily database of sectoral reopening measures in Europe during the first-wave and documents that country plans differed significantly in terms of timing, pace, and sequencing of sectoral reopening measures. We then show that reopenings led to a recovery in mobility-a proxy for economic activity-but at the cost of somewhat higher infections. However, the experience with reopening reveals some original dimensions of this trade-off. First, the increase in COVID-19 infections after reopening appears less severe in fatality rates. Second, a given reopening step is associated with a worse reinfection outcome in countries that started reopening earlier on the infection curve or that opened all sectors at a fast pace in a relatively short time. Finally, while opening measures tend to have an amplification effect on subsequent cases when a large fraction of the economy is already open, this effect appears heterogenous across sectors. Mode of access: Internet Gruss, Bertrand. Mulas-Granados, Carlos. Patnam, Manasa. IMF Working Papers; Working Paper ; No. 2020/218 Full text available on IMF http://elibrary.imf.org/view/journals/001/2020/218/001.2020.issue-218-en.xml IMF e-Library