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Portrait of Tommy Andersson. Photo.

Tommy Andersson

Professor

Portrait of Tommy Andersson. Photo.

Optimal Trade-Off Between Economic Activity and Health During an Epidemic

Optimal trade-off mellan ekonomisk aktivitet och hälsa under en epidemi

Author

  • Tommy Andersson
  • Albin Erlanson
  • Daniel Spiro
  • Robert Östling

Summary, in English

Thispaperconsidersasimplemodelwhereasocialplannercaninfluencethespread-intensity of an infection wave, and, consequently, also the economic activity and population health, throughasingleparameter. Populationhealthisassumedtoonlybenegativelyaffectedwhen thenumberofsimultaneouslyinfectedexceedshealthcarecapacity. Themainfindingisthat if (i) the planner attaches a positive weight on economic activity and (ii) it is more harmful for the economy to be locked down for longer than shorter time periods, then the optimal policy is to (weakly) exceed health care capacity at some time.

Department/s

  • Department of Economics

Publishing year

2020-05-18

Language

English

Document type

Web publication

Topic

  • Economics

Keywords

  • Covid-19 pandemic
  • SI-model
  • economic activity
  • health
  • optimal policy

Status

Unpublished