The first stream of economic studies on public policy responses during the COVID-19 pandemic focused on the stringency, the effectiveness, and the impact of the countries’ interventions and paid rather little attention to the corresponding means used to support them. The present paper scrutinizes the lockdown measures and, particularly, examines the optimality of the lockdown fines imposed by countries worldwide towards ensuring citizens’ compliance. Initially, a triad of fine stringency indicators are compiled, and the stringency of fines is evaluated in a comparative context, among the countries considered. Consequently, the fine stringency is incorporated into a regression analysis with various epidemiological, socioeconomic, and policy factors to reveal any drivers of fine variability. Finally, theoretical approaches behind fine optimality are capitalized and real data are used towards estimating the optimal fine for each country considered. The objectives of the paper are, first, to check for any drivers of fine stringency around the world and, second, to develop and test a formula that could be used in order to assist policy makers to formulate evidence-based fines for confronting the pandemic. The findings of the paper highlight that fines do not seem to have been imposed with any sound economic reasoning and the majority of countries considered imposed larger real fines, compared to the optimal ones, to support the lockdowns. The paper stresses the need for the imposition of science-based fines that reflect the social cost of non-compliance with the lockdown measures.

中文翻译：

---

COVID-19大流行和锁定最佳优化

在COVID-19大流行期间，有关公共政策对策的第一批经济研究重点在于国家干预的严格性，有效性和影响，而很少关注用于支持这些干预措施的相应手段。本文仔细研究了封锁措施，尤其是研究了世界各国为确保公民遵守而对封锁罚款的最佳选择。最初，在所考虑的国家中，编制了三项罚款严格度指标，并在比较的情况下对罚款的严格性进行了评估。因此，优良的严格度被纳入具有各种流行病学，社会经济和政策因素的回归分析中，以揭示优良变异性的任何驱动因素。最后，精细优化背后的理论方法被大写，并使用实际数据来估算每个所考虑国家的最佳精细。该文件的目标是，首先，检查全世界是否有任何严厉的罚款措施；其次，开发和测试一种可用于协助决策者制定基于证据的罚款以应对大流行的公式。 。该文件的调查结果突出表明，似乎没有任何合理的经济理由对罚款处以罚款，并且大多数国家都认为，与最佳罚款相比，实际罚款要高得多，以支持封锁。本文强调有必要对基于科学的罚款进行处分，以反映不遵守锁定措施所造成的社会成本。