Fredrik N G Andersson
Associate professor
Frivillig anpassning eller tvingande restriktioner? : Överdödligheten, pandemibekämpningen och den ekonomiska utvecklingen i Europa under 2020
Author
Summary, in Swedish
To reduce the spread of the Covid19 virus, governments have imposed far reaching restrictions on citizens’ mobility. These restrictions are associated with large social, economic, and democratic costs. In this article, I discuss whether it is possible to limit the economic costs by relying more on voluntary than mandated social distancing without causing the excess death rate to increase significantly. Based on data from Europe during 2020, I show that i) voluntary social distancing is higher in places with large infection rates, ii) the marginal benefit of additional restrictions on the excess death rate is small, and iii) the economic cost increases rapidly with additional restrictions. I conclude that the importance of voluntary social distancing should not be underestimated. More voluntary than mandatory social distancing may reduce the economic costs without increasing the excess death rate.
Department/s
- Department of Economics
Publishing year
2022-06-23
Language
Swedish
Pages
463-491
Publication/Series
Statsvetenskaplig tidskrift
Volume
2
Full text
- Available as PDF - 787 kB
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Links
Document type
Journal article
Publisher
Fahlbeckska stiftelsen
Topic
- Economics
Keywords
- corona
- COVID19
- överdödlighet
- ekonomisk kris
- ekonomi
Status
Published
ISBN/ISSN/Other
- ISSN: 0039-0747