The Cost of Privacy: Welfare Effects of the Disclosure of COVID-19 Cases

David Argente, Chang-Tai Hsieh and Munseob Lee

No 27220, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: South Korea publicly disclosed detailed location information of individuals that tested positive for COVID-19. We quantify the effect of public disclosure on the transmission of the virus and economic losses in Seoul. The change in commuting patterns due to public disclosure lowers the number of cases by 200 thousand and the number of deaths by 7.7 thousand in Seoul over two years. Compared to a city-wide lock-down that results in the same number of cases over two years as the disclosure scenario, the economic cost of such a lockdown is almost four times higher.

JEL-codes: E0 I0 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020-05
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-mac
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (27)

Published as David Argente & Chang-Tai Hsieh & Munseob Lee, 2022. "The Cost of Privacy: Welfare Effects of the Disclosure of COVID-19 Cases," The Review of Economics and Statistics, vol 104(1), pages 176-186.

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Working Paper: The Cost of Privacy: Welfare Effects of the Disclosure of COVID-19 Cases (2020)
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