IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ces/econpb/_24.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Group Testing Against Covid-19

Author

Listed:
  • Christian Gollier
  • Olivier Gossner

Abstract

It is well-known that group testing is an efficient strategy to screen for the presence of a virus. It consists in pooling n individual samples with a single test using RT-PCR. If at least one individual is infected, the test is positive, and it is negative otherwise. We show how group testing can be optimized in three applications to multiply the efficiency of tests against Covid-19: Estimating virus prevalence to measure the evolution of the pandemic; bringing negative groups back to work to exit the current lockdown; and testing for individual infectious status to treat sick people. For an infection level around 2%, group testing could multiply the power of testing by a factor 20. The implementation of this strategy in the short run requires limited investments and could bypass the current immense shortage of testing capacity.

Suggested Citation

  • Christian Gollier & Olivier Gossner, 2020. "Group Testing Against Covid-19," EconPol Policy Brief 24, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich.
    • Handle: RePEc:ces:econpb:_24
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.ifo.de/DocDL/EconPol_Policy_Brief_24_Group_Testing_Covid.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Thunström, Linda & Newbold, Stephen C. & Finnoff, David & Ashworth, Madison & Shogren, Jason F., 2020. "The Benefits and Costs of Using Social Distancing to Flatten the Curve for COVID-19," Journal of Benefit-Cost Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 11(2), pages 179-195, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Christian Gollier, 2020. "Cost–benefit analysis of age‐specific deconfinement strategies," Journal of Public Economic Theory, Association for Public Economic Theory, vol. 22(6), pages 1746-1771, December.
    2. Koen B. Pouwels & Laurence S. J. Roope & Adrian Barnett & David J. Hunter & Terry M. Nolan & Philip M. Clarke, 2020. "Group Testing for SARS-CoV-2: Forward to the Past?," PharmacoEconomics - Open, Springer, vol. 4(2), pages 207-210, June.
    3. Abel Brodeur & David Gray & Anik Islam & Suraiya Bhuiyan, 2021. "A literature review of the economics of COVID‐19," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 35(4), pages 1007-1044, September.
    4. C. Baunez & Mickael Degoulet & Stéphane Luchini & Patrick Pintus & Miriam Teschl, 2020. "Sub-National Allocation of COVID-19 Tests: An Efficiency Criterion with an Application to Italian Regions," Post-Print hal-03140005, HAL.
    5. Jiayi Lin & Hrayer Aprahamian & George Golovko, 2024. "An optimization framework for large-scale screening under limited testing capacity with application to COVID-19," Health Care Management Science, Springer, vol. 27(2), pages 223-238, June.
    6. Rahul Deb & Mallesh Pai & Akhil Vohra & Rakesh Vohra, 2022. "Testing alone is insufficient," Review of Economic Design, Springer;Society for Economic Design, vol. 26(1), pages 1-21, March.
    7. Nina Bobkova & Ying Chen & Hülya Eraslan, 2024. "Optimal group testing with heterogeneous risks," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 77(1), pages 413-444, February.
    8. Karolina Drela & Agnieszka Malkowska & Anna Bera & Anna Tokarz-Kocik, 2021. "Instruments for Managing the EU Labour Market in the Face of the COVID-19 Crisis," European Research Studies Journal, European Research Studies Journal, vol. 0(1), pages 984-998.
    9. Lipnowski, Elliot & Ravid, Doron, 2021. "Pooled testing for quarantine decisions," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 198(C).
    10. Jean-Noël Barrot & Basile Grassi & Julien Sauvagnat, 2020. "Estimating the Costs and Benefits of Mandated Business Closures in a Pandemic," Working Papers hal-02896739, HAL.
    11. Lu Tang & Yiwang Zhou & Lili Wang & Soumik Purkayastha & Leyao Zhang & Jie He & Fei Wang & Peter X.‐K. Song, 2020. "A Review of Multi‐Compartment Infectious Disease Models," International Statistical Review, International Statistical Institute, vol. 88(2), pages 462-513, August.
    12. Hanno Beck & Aloys Prinz & Elmar Wolfstetter, 2022. "Vaccination Gap, Vaccination Fraud and Inefficient Testing," Intereconomics: Review of European Economic Policy, Springer;ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics;Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS), vol. 57(5), pages 330-336, September.
    13. Ely, Jeffrey & Galeotti, Andrea & Jann, Ole & Steiner, Jakub, 2021. "Optimal test allocation," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 193(C).
    14. Vincent Brault & Bastien Mallein & Jean-François Rupprecht, 2021. "Group testing as a strategy for COVID-19 epidemiological monitoring and community surveillance," PLOS Computational Biology, Public Library of Science, vol. 17(3), pages 1-25, March.
    15. Eslami, Keyvan & Lee, Hyunju, 2024. "Overreaction and the value of information in a pandemic," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 161(C).
    16. Tarun Jain & Bijendra Nath Jain, 2021. "Infection Testing at Scale: An Examination of Pooled Testing Diagnostics," Vikalpa: The Journal for Decision Makers, , vol. 46(1), pages 13-26, March.
    17. Long Hai Vo & Thai‐Ha Le, 2022. "COVID‐19 test‐kit trade and trade policy: Implications for developing countries," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 45(10), pages 3246-3268, October.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Liana R Woskie & Jonathan Hennessy & Valeria Espinosa & Thomas C Tsai & Swapnil Vispute & Benjamin H Jacobson & Ciro Cattuto & Laetitia Gauvin & Michele Tizzoni & Alex Fabrikant & Krishna Gadepalli & , 2021. "Early social distancing policies in Europe, changes in mobility & COVID-19 case trajectories: Insights from Spring 2020," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 16(6), pages 1-12, June.
    2. Nicolò Gatti & Beatrice Retali, 2021. "Fighting the spread of Covid-19 : was the Swiss lockdown worth it?," IdEP Economic Papers 2101, USI Università della Svizzera italiana.
    3. Fabian Stephany & Michael Dunn & Steven Sawyer & Vili Lehdonvirta, 2020. "Distancing Bonus Or Downscaling Loss? The Changing Livelihood of Us Online Workers in Times of COVID‐19," Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie, Royal Dutch Geographical Society KNAG, vol. 111(3), pages 561-573, July.
    4. Gabriella Conti & Pamela Giustinelli, 2025. "For Better or Worse? Subjective Expectations and Cost‐Benefit Trade‐Offs in Health Behavior: An Application to Lockdown Compliance in the United Kingdom," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 34(5), pages 992-1012, May.
    5. Augeraud-Véron, Emmanuelle & Fabbri, Giorgio & Schubert, Katheline, 2021. "Prevention and mitigation of epidemics: Biodiversity conservation and confinement policies," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 93(C).
    6. André de Palma & Nathalie Picard & Stef Proost, 2021. "SCARE: when Economics meets Epidemiology with COVID-19, first wave," THEMA Working Papers 2021-10, THEMA (THéorie Economique, Modélisation et Applications), Université de Cergy-Pontoise.
    7. Nicolò Gatti & Beatrice Retali, 2021. "Saving lives during the COVID-19 pandemic: the benefits of the first Swiss lockdown," Swiss Journal of Economics and Statistics, Springer;Swiss Society of Economics and Statistics, vol. 157(1), pages 1-21, December.
    8. Peter T. Leeson & Louis Rouanet, 2021. "Externality and COVID‐19," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 87(4), pages 1107-1118, April.
    9. Yasushi Iwamoto, 2021. "Welfare economics of managing an epidemic: an exposition," The Japanese Economic Review, Springer, vol. 72(4), pages 537-579, October.
    10. Akira Watanabe & Hiroyuki Matsuda, 2023. "Effectiveness of feedback control and the trade-off between death by COVID-19 and costs of countermeasures," Health Care Management Science, Springer, vol. 26(1), pages 46-61, March.
    11. Scott Kaplan & Jacob Lefler & David Zilberman, 2022. "The political economy of COVID‐19," Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 44(1), pages 477-488, March.
    12. Bruno Palialol & Paula Pereda & Carlos Azzoni, 2020. "Does weather influence COVID‐19 transmission?," Regional Science Policy & Practice, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 12(6), pages 981-1004, December.
    13. William Brock & Anastasios Xepapadeas, 2023. "Natural world preservation and infectious diseases: Land-use, climate change and innovation," DEOS Working Papers 2319, Athens University of Economics and Business.
    14. Seres, Gyula & Balleyer, Anna & Cerutti, Nicola & Friedrichsen, Jana & Süer, Müge, 2021. "Face mask use and physical distancing before and after mandatory masking: No evidence on risk compensation in public waiting lines," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 192(C), pages 765-781.
    15. Giampaolo Garzarelli & Lyndal Keeton & Aldo A. Sitoe, 2022. "Rights redistribution and COVID-19 lockdown policy," European Journal of Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 54(1), pages 5-36, August.
    16. Robert E. Hall & Charles I. Jones & Peter J. Klenow, 2020. "Trading Off Consumption and COVID-19 Deaths," Quarterly Review, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, vol. 42(1), pages 1-14, June.
    17. Makridis, Christos & McNab, Robert, 2020. "The Fiscal Cost of COVID-19: Evidence from the States," Working Papers 10702, George Mason University, Mercatus Center.
    18. Gros, Claudius & Gros, Daniel, 2022. "The economics of stop-and-go epidemic control," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 81(C).
    19. Jose Robles-Zurita, 2023. "Reducing the basic reproduction number of COVID-19: a model simulation focused on QALYs, hospitalisation, productivity costs and optimal (soft) lockdown," The European Journal of Health Economics, Springer;Deutsche Gesellschaft für Gesundheitsökonomie (DGGÖ), vol. 24(4), pages 647-659, June.
    20. Jessica Carrick-Hagenbarth & Eric Edlund & Avanti Mukherjee, 2023. "Analysis of Hybrid Epidemiological-Economic Models of COVID-19 Mitigation Policies," Eastern Economic Journal, Palgrave Macmillan;Eastern Economic Association, vol. 49(4), pages 585-612, October.

    More about this item

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ces:econpb:_24. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Klaus Wohlrabe (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/ifooode.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.