COVID-19 BUSINESSES REOPENINGS ANDCONSUMER SPENDING *Raissa Dantas and Jacob A. Robbins April 14, 2021Latest version here.AbstractThis paper studies if Covid-19 retail and restaurant shutdowns and reopen- ings were responsible for the dramatic V shaped pattern of consumer spend- ing in the United States. We find reopening policies substantially increased spending for categories directly impacted by the laws: a 68.4 p.p. increase in non-essential in-store spending
