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Group Testing and Social Distancing

Galanis, Spyros

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Abstract

An often overlooked strategy for fighting the COVID-19 pandemic is group testing. Its main advantage is that it can scale, enabling the regular testing of the whole population. We argue that another advantage is that it can induce social distancing. Using a simple model, we show that if a group tests positive and its members are in close social proximity, then they will rationally choose not to meet. The driving force is the uncertainty about who has the virus and the fact that the group cares about its collective welfare. We therefore propose identifying socially connected groups, such as colleagues, friends and neighbours, and testing them regularly.

Citation

Galanis, S. (2021). Group Testing and Social Distancing. National Institute Economic Review, 257, 36-45. https://doi.org/10.1017/nie.2021.26

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Jul 9, 2021
Online Publication Date Sep 30, 2021
Publication Date 2021
Deposit Date Sep 8, 2021
Publicly Available Date Mar 29, 2024
Journal National Institute Economic Review
Print ISSN 0027-9501
Electronic ISSN 1741-3036
Publisher Cambridge University Press
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 257
Pages 36-45
DOI https://doi.org/10.1017/nie.2021.26
Public URL https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1235302

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Accepted Journal Article (304 Kb)
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Publisher Licence URL
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

Copyright Statement
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

© The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of National Institute Economic Review





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