How Should Policy Responses to the COVID-19 Pandemic Differ in the Developing World?

Titan Alon, Minki Kim, David Lagakos and Mitchell VanVuren

No 27273, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: This paper quantitatively analyzes how policy responses to the COVID-19 pandemic should differ in developing countries. To do so we build an incomplete-markets macroeconomic model with heterogeneous agents and epidemiological dynamics that features several of the key distinctions between advanced and developing economies germane to the pandemic. We focus in particular on differences in: age structure, fiscal capacity, healthcare capacity, informality, and the frequency of contacts between individuals at home, work, school and other locations. The model predicts that blanket lockdowns are less effective in developing countries, saving fewer lives per unit of lost GDP. In contrast, age-specific policies are even more effective, since they focus scarce public funds on shielding the smaller population of older individuals. School closures are also more effective at saving lives in developing countries, providing a greater reduction in secondary transmissions between children and older adults at home.

JEL-codes: E2 E6 I15 I28 O17 O41 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020-05
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hea, nep-iue and nep-mac
Note: DEV EFG
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (77)

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Working Paper: How Should Policy Responses to the COVID-19 Pandemic Differ in the Developing World? (2020)
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