Modeling to Inform Economy-Wide Pandemic Policy: Bringing Epidemiologists and Economists Together

Michael Darden, David Dowdy (), Lauren Gardner (), Barton Hamilton (), Karen Kopecky, Melissa Marx (), Nicholas Papageorge, Daniel Polsky (), Kimberly Powers (), Elizabeth Stuart () and Matthew Zahn
Additional contact information
David Dowdy: https://publichealth.jhu.edu/faculty/2529/david-w-dowdy
Lauren Gardner: https://engineering.jhu.edu/faculty/lauren-gardner/
Melissa Marx: https://publichealth.jhu.edu/faculty/3159/melissa-a-marx
Daniel Polsky: https://carey.jhu.edu/faculty/faculty-directory/daniel-polsky-phd
Kimberly Powers: https://sph.unc.edu/adv_profile/kimberly-powers-phd/
Elizabeth Stuart: https://publichealth.jhu.edu/faculty/1792/elizabeth-a-stuart

No 2021-26, FRB Atlanta Working Paper from Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta

Abstract: Facing unprecedented uncertainty and drastic trade-offs between public health and other forms of human well-being, policymakers during the Covid-19 pandemic have sought the guidance of epidemiologists and economists. Unfortunately, while both groups of scientists use many of the same basic mathematical tools, the models they develop to inform policy tend to rely on different sets of assumptions and, thus, often lead to different policy conclusions. This divergence in policy recommendations can lead to uncertainty and confusion, opening the door to disinformation, distrust of institutions, and politicization of scientific facts. Unfortunately, to date, there have not been widespread efforts to build bridges and find consensus or even to clarify sources of differences across these fields, members of whom often continue to work within their traditional academic silos. In response to this "crisis of communication," we convened a group of scholars from epidemiology, economics, and related fields (such as statistics, engineering, and health policy) to discuss approaches to modeling economy-wide pandemics. We summarize these conversations by providing a consensus view of disciplinary differences (including critiques) and working through a specific policy example. Thereafter, we chart a path forward for more effective synergy among disciplines, which we hope will lead to better policies as the current pandemic evolves and future pandemics emerge.

Keywords: economics; epidemiology; public health; Covid-19; behavior modeling; health outcomes; health-wealth tradeoffs (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C8 H0 I1 J0 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 20
Date: 2021-11-16
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hea, nep-hme and nep-hpe
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Published in 2021

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.atlantafed.org/-/media/documents/resea ... -pandemic-policy.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Modeling to inform economy‐wide pandemic policy: Bringing epidemiologists and economists together (2022)
Working Paper: Modeling to Inform Economy-Wide Pandemic Policy: Bringing Epidemiologists and Economists Together (2021)
Working Paper: Modeling to Inform Economy-Wide Pandemic Policy: Bringing Epidemiologists and Economists Together (2021)
Working Paper: Modeling to Inform Economy-Wide Pandemic Policy: Bringing Epidemiologists and Economists Together (2021)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:fip:fedawp:93482

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from

DOI: 10.29338/wp2021-26

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in FRB Atlanta Working Paper from Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Rob Sarwark ().