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In this note, we consider early evidence regarding behavioural responses to an emerging public health emergency. We explore patterns in stadium attendance demand by exploiting match-level data from the Belarusian Premier League (BPL), a football competition that kept playing unrestricted in front of spectators throughout the global COVID-19 pandemic, unlike all other European professional sports leagues. We observe that stadium attendance demand in Belarus declined significantly in the initial period of maximum uncertainty. Surprisingly, demand then slowly recovered, despite the ongoing inherent risk to individuals from going to a match. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Russia, Ukraine and Belarus are good comparators sharing a common Soviet past, similar cultures and religions, while in the COVID-19 crisis they have pursued quite different policies. Belarus has denied the pandemic and undertaken no measures. Russia played down the epidemic for a long time and then undertook half-hearted and incoherent measures. Ukraine feared the virus and carried out an early and strict quarantine in a centralized policy. While testing has been sparse until recently and death tolls remain uncertain, Belarus and Russia appear to have done poorly in terms of health, while Ukraine has so far done much better. It is too early to judge the economic outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]