This paper estimates the benefits and costs of state suppression policies to “bend the curve” during the initial outbreak of COVID-19 in the United States. We employ an approach that values benefits and costs in terms of additions or subtractions to total production. Relative to a baseline in which only the infected and at-risk populations mitigate the spread of coronavirus, we estimate that total benefits of suppression policies to economic output are between $632.5 billion and $765.0 billion from early March 2020 to August 1, 2020. Relative to private mitigation, output lost due to suppression policies is estimated to be between $214.2 billion and $331.5 billion. The cost estimate is based on the duration of nonessential business closures and stay-at-home orders, which were enforced between 42 and 65 days. Our results indicate that the net benefits of suppression policies to slow the spread of COVID-19 are positive and may be substantial. We discuss uncertainty surrounding several parameters and employ alternative methods for valuing mortality benefits, which also suggest that suppression measures had positive net benefits.

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Broadband deployment policies have directly subsidized fiber providers because fiber broadband delivers fast download speeds. This article examines whether recent fiber buildout has increased competition for Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Lines (aDSL) and cable incumbents and whether entry by a fiber competitor predicts faster incumbent download speeds. Despite significant growth in fiber broadband service in the United States between 2014 and 2019, the number of fiber competitors in census blocks with aDSL or cable incumbents remains low. Further, our econometric results, while not interpretable as causal relationships, suggest that the entry of a rival fiber operator does not explain recent increases in cable and aDSL speeds.