When to Release the Lockdown? A Wellbeing Framework for Analysing Costs and Benefits

Richard Layard (), Andrew Clark, Jan-Emmanuel De Neve, Christian Krekel, Daisy Fancourt (), Nancy Hey and Gus O'Donnell
Additional contact information
Richard Layard: London School of Economics
Daisy Fancourt: University College London
Nancy Hey: What Works Centre for Wellbeing
Gus O'Donnell: House of Lords

No 13186, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: It is politicians who have to decide when to release the lockdown, and in what way. In doing so, they have to balance many considerations (as with any decision). Often the different considerations appear incommensurable so that only the roughest of judgements can be made. For example, in the case of COVID-19, one has to compare the economic benefits of releasing the lockdown with the social and psychological benefits, and then compare the total of these with the increase in deaths that would result from an early exit. We here propose a way of doing this more systematically.

Keywords: well-being; COVID-19; lockdown (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H12 I18 I31 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 21 pages
Date: 2020-04
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hap and nep-ltv
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (47)

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Related works:
Working Paper: When to release the lockdown: A wellbeing framework for analysing costs and benefits (2020)
Working Paper: When to release the lockdown: a wellbeing framework for analysing costs and benefits (2020)
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