Covid-19 Control and the Economy: Test, Test, Test

Taamouti, A.

doi:10.1111/obes.12442

Covid-19 Control and the Economy: Test, Test, Test

Taamouti, A.

Authors

Professor Abderrahim Taamouti abderrahim.taamouti@durham.ac.uk
Visiting Fellow

Abstract

Hard lockdowns have left policymakers to face the ethical dilemma of choosing between saving lives and saving the economy. However, massive testing could have helped to respond more effectively to Covid-19 crisis. In this paper, we study the trade-o§ between infection control, lockdown and testing. The aim is to understand how these policies can be effectively combined to contain Covid-19 without damaging the economy. An extended SIR epidemic model is developed to identify the set of testing and lockdown levels that lead to a reproduction number below one, thus to infection control and saving lives. Depending on whether the testing policy is static or dynamic, the model suggests that testing 4% to 7% of the population is the way to safely reopen the economy and the society.

Citation

Taamouti, A. (2021). Covid-19 Control and the Economy: Test, Test, Test. Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, 83(5), 1011-1028. https://doi.org/10.1111/obes.12442

Journal Article Type	Article
Acceptance Date	Apr 20, 2021
Online Publication Date	May 24, 2021
Publication Date	Sep 6, 2021
Deposit Date	Apr 21, 2021
Publicly Available Date	Jul 23, 2021
Journal	Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics
Print ISSN	0305-9049
Electronic ISSN	1468-0084
Publisher	Wiley
Peer Reviewed	Peer Reviewed
Volume	83
Issue	5
Pages	1011-1028
DOI	https://doi.org/10.1111/obes.12442
Public URL	https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1277003

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© 2021 The Authors. Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics published by Oxford University and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License, which permits use and distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non-commercial and no modifications or adaptations are made.