Health vs. Wealth? Public Health Policies and the Economy During Covid-19

Peter Lin and Christopher Meissner

No 27099, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: We study the impact of non-pharmaceutical policy interventions (NPIs) like “stay-at-home” orders on the spread of infectious disease. Local policies have little impact on the economy nor on local public health. Stay-at-home is only weakly associated with slower growth of Covid-19 cases. Reductions in observed “mobility” are not associated with slower growth of Covid-19 cases. Stay-at-home is associated with lower workplace and more residential activity, but common shocks matter much more. Moreover, job losses have been no higher in US states that implemented stay-at-home during the Covid-19 pandemic than in states that did not have stay-at-home. All of these results demonstrate that the Covid-19 pandemic is a common economic and public health shock. They also show that policy spillovers and behavioral responses are important. The tradeoff between the economy and public health in a pandemic depends strongly on what is happening elsewhere. This underscores the importance of coordinated economic and public health responses.

JEL-codes: E24 E3 E71 Z18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020-05
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hea
Note: EH
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (63)

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