**Table 1: Variable definitions and Sources**

|Variables|Definition and source|
|---|---|
|Cases per 1000<br>residents|The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases per 1,000 residents. Calculated based on original coronavirus data<br>from Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center. Updated to November 19, 2020. In regressions, we<br>use_Log (1+Cases per 1000 residents)_as the dependent variable.|
|Pandemic mortality<br>rate|Total pandemic deaths divided by total confirmed COVID-19 cases. Calculated based on original coronavirus<br>data from Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center. Updated to November 19, 2020.|
|Delay I|Delay in controlling the international travel, equals to the number of days, divided by 100, from the day that<br>the economy discloses the first COVID-19 case to the day that the government first announces the policy<br>to restrict the international travel. Lower number indicates prompt government response. Calculated based<br>on the dataset constructed by Hale et al. (2020).|
|Delay D|Delay in implementing domestic close-down policy, equals to the number of days, divided by 100, from the<br>day that the economy discloses the first COVID-19 case to the day that the government first announces<br>their domestic closedown policy, which include school closing, workplace closing, public events<br>cancelling, restrictions on gatherings, public transport closing, stay at home requirement and restrictions<br>on internal movement. Lower number indicates prompt government response. Calculated based on the<br>dataset constructed by Hale et al. (2020).|
|Avg Temperature|Average temperature since the month COVID-19 arrived to November, divided by 100.|
|Middle (Top)<br>Distance2China|The distance of the country or special region to China is in the middle (top) tercile in the distance to China.|
|Longitude, Latitude|Geographic coordinate, divided by 100.|
|GDP per capita|GDP per capita (constant 2010 US$) in 2018, obtained from WDI.|
|Population|Total population in 2019, obtained from WDI.|
|Elderly|The share of population with ages 65 and above as a share of the total population in 2019, obtained from WDI.|
|Obesity|Prevalence of obesity among adults (both sexes) in 2016, i.t., with BMI ≥ 30 (age-standardized estimate).<br>Obtained from World Health Data Platform of World Health Organization.|
|Urban|The share of urban population in total population in 2019 (% of total pop)|
|SO2 concentration|Sulfur dioxide (SO2) concentrations in troposphere, 10,000 moles of light per square meter (mol/m2). SO2<br>vertical column density at ground level, retrieval results calculated using the Differential Optical<br>Absorption Spectroscopy technique at a high resolution (0.01 arc degrees). Data source is Sentinel-5P<br>from the European Space Agency (ESA). (Sentinel-5P NRTI SO2: Near Real-Time Sulphur Dioxide)|
|Democracy|A dummy variable indicates the status of democracy, based on Freedom House, 2010.|
|Individualistic<br>culture|The Individual Empowerment index (version 2), obtained from WVS. It measures the extent to which the<br>people in a society are mentally and habitually empowered to make their own choices and to pursue them<br>in their actions. For each economy, use the latest wave of survey covering survey years of 1996-2014.<br>Higher value indicates higher level of individualistic culture in the country. We replace the missing value<br>by the computed average in the cell of continent-income-group (each continent is divided to two income<br>group based on GDP per capita).|
|Trust|Trust in unknowns and people of a different nationality and religion. Obtained from WVS. Higher value<br>indicates higher level of out-group trust in the country. For each economy, use the latest wave of survey<br>covering survey years of 1996-2014. Higher value indicates higher trust level of the country. We replace<br>the missing value by the computed average in the cell of continent-income-group (each continent is<br>divided to two income group based on GDP per capita).|

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