section_path: Causes/Lockdowns
section_name: Lockdowns
paragraph_text: Lockdowns
  
  While stay-at-home orders clearly affect many types of business, especially those that provide in-person services (including retail stores, restaurants and hotels, entertainment venues and museums, medical offices, and beauty salons and spas), government orders are not the sole pressure on those businesses. In the United States, people began to change their economic behavior 10–20 days before their local governments declared stay-at-home orders, and by May, changes in individuals' rates of movement (according to smartphone data) did not always correlate with local laws. According to a 2021 study, only 7% of the decline in economic activity was due to government-imposed restrictions on activity; the vast majority of the decline was due to individuals voluntarily disengaging from commerce.