Pandemic Economics: Essential Features and Outstanding Questions

S. Niggol Seo

Chapter Chapter 2 in The Economics of Pandemics, 2022, pp 45-84 from Springer

Abstract: Abstract This chapter provides a review of the economic theories, models, and statistics that are pertinent to the economic study of pandemics as a globally shared experience. A worldwide pandemic is a public good whose experience is globally shared. In providing a public good, its production technology should be heeded to, of which there are three in the context of pandemics: weakest link, best shot, and cumulative. A governmental intervention in pandemic preparedness and prevention may be formulated based on the annual expected cost of an infectious disease, incorporating the expected number of fatalities from the disease. The preparedness of a nation seems to depend on the choice of a national health insurance system, for which this chapter compares three distinct health systems. The impacts of the pandemic on the economy are often measured by changes in the unemployment rate and the economic production while sectoral changes may turn out important. Policy choices pursued by the government critically determine the health and economic outcomes of the pandemic. A lockdown-lockdown strategy, which is the most precautionary option, seems to perform the worst in both indicators.

Keywords: Pandemic; Public goods; Globally shared goods; Production technologies; Weakest-link; Best-shot; Backstop; Annual expected loss; National Health Systems; Lockdown-lockdown; Focused protection; Unemployment rate; No lockdown strategy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:sprchp:978-3-030-91021-1_2

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DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-91021-1_2

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