The Economic Implications of Epidemics Old and New

Clive Bell and Maureen Lewis

No 54, Working Papers from Center for Global Development

Abstract: The outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) in the winter of 2002–03 raised the specter of a new, unknown and uncontrollable infectious disease that spreads quickly and is often fatal. Certain branches of economic activity, notably tourism, felt its impact almost at once, and investor expectations of a safe and controlled investment climate were brought into question. Part of the shock of SARS was the abrupt reversal of a mounting legacy of disease control that had altered societies’ expectations from coping with waves of epidemics of smallpox, cholera, and measles, among other diseases, to complacency with the virtual elimination of disease epidemics. This paper analyzes the economic implications of the Great Plague in the fourteenth century, the 1918–19 influenza epidemic, HIV/AIDS and SARS to demonstrate the short- and long-term effects of different kinds of epidemics.

Keywords: severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS); infectious disease; epidemics (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I12 I18 O15 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 41 pages
Date: 2005-02
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hea
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (9)

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Related works:
Journal Article: The Economic Implications of Epidemics Old and New (2004)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cgd:wpaper:54

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