IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ris/smuesw/2020_020.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Between Lives and Economy: Optimal COVID-19 Containment Policy in Open Economies

Author

Listed:
  • Hsu, Wen-Tai

    (School of Economics, Singapore Management University)

  • Lin, Hsuan-Chih (Luke)

    (Institute of Economics, Academia Sinica)

  • Yang, Han

    (Institute of Economics, Academia Sinica)

Abstract

This paper studies optimal containment policy for combating a pandemic in an open-economy context. It does so via quantitative analyses using a model that incorporates a standard epidemiological compartmental model in a multi-country, multi-sector Ricardian model of international trade with full-fledged input-output linkages. We devise a novel approach in computing optimal national policies in the long run, and contrast these policies with a baseline in which countries maintain their current policies until vaccine availability. The welfare gains under optimal policies are asymmetric as the gains for the set of countries which should tighten up the containment measures are much larger than those which should relax. We also find that the welfare implications of optimal policies in open economies differ significantly from those in closed ones.

Suggested Citation

  • Hsu, Wen-Tai & Lin, Hsuan-Chih (Luke) & Yang, Han, 2020. "Between Lives and Economy: Optimal COVID-19 Containment Policy in Open Economies," Economics and Statistics Working Papers 20-2020, Singapore Management University, School of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:ris:smuesw:2020_020
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/soe_research/2400/
    File Function: Full text
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Citations

    RePEc Biblio mentions

    As found on the RePEc Biblio, the curated bibliography for Economics:
    1. > Economics of Welfare > Health Economics > Economics of Pandemics > Specific pandemics > Covid-19 > Health > Distancing and Lockdown > Optimal policy
    2. > Economics of Welfare > Health Economics > Economics of Pandemics > Specific pandemics > Covid-19 > Modelling > General Equilibrium

    Citations

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


    Cited by:

    1. George, Ammu & Li, Changtai & Lim, Jing Zhi & Xie, Taojun, 2021. "From SARS to COVID-19: The evolving role of China-ASEAN production network," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 101(C).
    2. Caulkins, J.P. & Grass, D. & Feichtinger, G. & Hartl, R.F. & Kort, P.M. & Kuhn, M. & Prskawetz, A. & Sanchez-Romero, M. & Seidl, A. & Wrzaczek, S., 2023. "The hammer and the jab: Are COVID-19 lockdowns and vaccinations complements or substitutes?," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 311(1), pages 233-250.
    3. Taojun Xie & Jiao Wang & Shiqi Liu, 2021. "Impact of Travel Bubbles: Cooperative Travel Arrangements in a Pandemic," Melbourne Institute Working Paper Series wp2021n10, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, The University of Melbourne.
    4. So Kubota, 2021. "The macroeconomics of COVID-19 exit strategy: the case of Japan," The Japanese Economic Review, Springer, vol. 72(4), pages 651-682, October.
    5. Feng, Qu & Wu, Guiying Laura & Yuan, Mengying & Zhou, Shihao, 2022. "Save lives or save livelihoods? A cross-country analysis of COVID-19 pandemic and economic growth," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 197(C), pages 221-256.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    COVID-19; pandemic; welfare analysis; containment policy; optimal policy; open economy; trade; input-output linkages;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • E27 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Forecasting and Simulation: Models and Applications
    • F11 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Neoclassical Models of Trade
    • F40 - International Economics - - Macroeconomic Aspects of International Trade and Finance - - - General
    • I18 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Government Policy; Regulation; Public Health

    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:ris:smuesw:2020_020. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: Cheong Pei Qi (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/sesmusg.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.