National mask mandate could save GDP from a 5% cut, Goldman says
An national mandate to wear face masks could save the U.S. economy from additional lockdowns that would knock 5% off of GDP, according to a Goldman Sachs note.
Goldman Chief Economist Jan Hatzius and his team found that the link between face masks and COVID-19 health and economic outcomes is significant.
“We find that face masks are associated with significantly better coronavirus outcomes,” Hatzius wrote.
According to Goldman's baseline estimate, a national mandate could increase the percentage of people wearing masks by 15 percentage points and cut the daily growth rate of confirmed cases by 1.0 percentage point to 0.6%.
Based on the economic effects of earlier lockdowns, the Goldman economists estimate that a face mask mandate could potentially avert lockdowns that would otherwise cuts almost 5% from GDP.