Socioeconomic Network Heterogeneity and Pandemic Policy Response

Mohammad Akbarpour (), Cody Cook (), Aude Marzuoli (), Simon Mongey, Abhishek Nagaraj (), Matteo Saccarola (), Pietro Tebaldi (), Shoshana Vasserman and Hanbin Yang ()
Additional contact information
Mohammad Akbarpour: Stanford University - Stanford Graduate School of Business
Cody Cook: Stanford University - Stanford Graduate School of Business
Aude Marzuoli: Replica
Abhishek Nagaraj: University of California, Berkeley - Haas School of Business
Matteo Saccarola: University of Chicago - Department of Economics
Pietro Tebaldi: University of Chicago - Department of Economics; NBER
Hanbin Yang: Harvard University - Harvard Business School

No 2020-75, Working Papers from Becker Friedman Institute for Research In Economics

Abstract: We develop a heterogeneous-agents network-based model to analyze alternative policies during a pandemic outbreak, accounting for health and economic trade-offs within the same empirical framework. We leverage a variety of data sources, including data on individuals’ mobility and encounters across metropolitan areas, health records, and measures of the possibility to be productively working from home. This combination of data sources allows us to build a framework in which the severity of a disease outbreak varies across locations and industries, and across individuals who differ by age, occupation, and preexisting health conditions. We use this framework to analyze the impact of different social distancing policies in the context of the COVID-19 outbreaks across US metropolitan areas. Our results highlight how outcomes vary across areas in relation to the underlying heterogeneity in population density, social network structures, population health, and employment characteristics. We find that policies by which individuals who can work from home continue to do so, or in which schools and firms alternate schedules across different groups of students and employees, can be effective in limiting the health and healthcare costs of the pandemic outbreak while also reducing employment losses.

Pages: 76 pages
Date: 2020
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-net and nep-ure
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (35)

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Related works:
Working Paper: Socioeconomic Network Heterogeneity and Pandemic Policy Response (2020)
Working Paper: Socioeconomic Network Heterogeneity and Pandemic Policy Response (2020)
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