Health vs. Wealth? Public Health Policies and the Economy During Covid-19 / Zhixian Lin, Christopher M. Meissner.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Lin, Zhixian.

Contributor:

National Bureau of Economic Research.

Meissner, Christopher M.

Series:

Working Paper Series (National Bureau of Economic Research) no. w27099.

NBER working paper series no. w27099

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource: illustrations (black and white);

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. National Bureau of Economic Research 2020.

Summary:

We study the impact of non-pharmaceutical policy interventions (NPIs) like "stay-at-home" orders on the spread of infectious disease. Local policies have little impact on the economy nor on local public health. Stay-at-home is only weakly associated with slower growth of Covid-19 cases. Reductions in observed "mobility" are not associated with slower growth of Covid-19 cases. Stay-at-home is associated with lower workplace and more residential activity, but common shocks matter much more. Moreover, job losses have been no higher in US states that implemented stay-at-home during the Covid-19 pandemic than in states that did not have stay-at-home. All of these results demonstrate that the Covid-19 pandemic is a common economic and public health shock. They also show that policy spillovers and behavioral responses are important. The tradeoff between the economy and public health in a pandemic depends strongly on what is happening elsewhere. This underscores the importance of coordinated economic and public health responses.

Notes:

Print version record

May 2020.