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Lives versus Livelihoods during the COVID-19 Pandemic : How Testing Softens the Trade-Off / Ergys Islamaj.
World Bank Open Knowledge Repository (formerly "World Bank E-Library Publications") Available online
View online- Format:
- Book
- Government document
- Author/Creator:
- Islamaj, Ergys.
- Series:
- Policy research working papers.
- World Bank e-Library.
- Language:
- English
- Subjects (All):
- Business Cycles and Stabilization Policies.
- Coronavirus.
- COVID-19.
- Disease Control and Prevention.
- Employment and Unemployment.
- Fatality Rate.
- Health and Poverty.
- Health, Nutrition and Population.
- Income Loss.
- Livelihoods.
- Living Standards.
- Lockdown.
- Macroeconomics and Economic Growth.
- Pandemic Impact.
- Poverty Reduction.
- Testing.
- Local Subjects:
- Business Cycles and Stabilization Policies.
- Coronavirus.
- COVID-19.
- Disease Control and Prevention.
- Employment and Unemployment.
- Fatality Rate.
- Health and Poverty.
- Health, Nutrition and Population.
- Income Loss.
- Livelihoods.
- Living Standards.
- Lockdown.
- Macroeconomics and Economic Growth.
- Pandemic Impact.
- Poverty Reduction.
- Testing.
- Physical Description:
- 1 online resource (35 pages)
- Other Title:
- Lives versus Livelihoods during the COVID-19 Pandemic
- Place of Publication:
- Washington, D.C. : The World Bank, 2021.
- System Details:
- data file
- Summary:
- The early COVID-19 pandemic literature focused on the conflict between lives and livelihoods. But cross-country evidence reveals that across countries high mortality rates were often associated with large gross domestic product contractions. This paper shows that the presumed trade-off was associated with lockdowns as the primary instrument of containment. Early transition from lockdowns to testing-tracing-isolation-based containment softened the trade-off within countries and explains the absence of a trade-off across countries. The analysis finds that testing had positive indirect effects on growth and perhaps even positive direct effects. By allowing countries to relax shutdowns without compromising on containment, testing could have indirectly contributed to about a 0.6 percentage point boost in growth. By infusing greater confidence in people to step out and engage in economic activity, testing could have added another 0.6 percentage point to growth. As the world struggles to scale up vaccination in the face of new waves and variants, continued emphasis on testing could help limit infection without recourse to costly lockdowns.
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