Citation

Discussion Paper Details

Please find the details for DP14670 in an easy to copy and paste format below:

Full Details   |   Bibliographic Reference

Full Details

Title: Internal and External Effects of Social Distancing in a Pandemic

Author(s): Maryam Farboodi, Gregor Jarosch and Robert Shimer

Publication Date: April 2020

Keyword(s): COVID-19, Equilibrium Social Distancing and Optimal Social Distancing

Programme Area(s): Macroeconomics and Growth

Abstract: We use a conventional dynamic economic model to integrate individual optimization, equilibrium interactions, and policy analysis into the canonical epidemiological model. Our tractable framework allows us to represent both equilibrium and optimal allocations as a set of differential equations that can jointly be solved with the epidemiological model in a unified fashion. Quantitatively, the laissez-faire equilibrium accounts for the decline in social activity we measure in US micro-data from SafeGraph. Relative to that, we highlight three key features of the optimal policy: it imposes immediate, discontinuous social distancing; it keeps social distancing in place for a long time or until treatment is found; and it is never extremely restrictive, keeping the effective reproduction number mildly above the share of the population susceptible to the disease.

For full details and related downloads, please visit: https://cepr.org/active/publications/discussion_papers/dp.php?dpno=14670

Bibliographic Reference

Farboodi, M, Jarosch, G and Shimer, R. 2020. 'Internal and External Effects of Social Distancing in a Pandemic'. London, Centre for Economic Policy Research. https://cepr.org/active/publications/discussion_papers/dp.php?dpno=14670