CoronaMelder : An Economic Perspective

This paper analyses digital contact tracing apps, specifically the Dutch CoronaMelder through an economic lens. Like many countries before it, The Netherlands launched an app for digital contact tracing in October 2020. The aims of this smartphone app are: (1) to assist or supplement the public health institutions (GGD) in tracing recent contacts of someone who tested positive for COVID-19, that may have led to new infections; (2) To slow down the spreading of the virus by urging these contacts to be tested and to go into quarantine until it is clear if they have been infected, in order to stop them from infecting others. Section 2 describes several basis characteristics of the CoronaMelder app and its usage and summarizes the conclusions of the recently published evaluation. Section 3 discusses the private costs and benefits of using the app: what are the incentives for an individual to use the app? Subsequently, Section 4 looks at the direct and indirect costs and benefits from a societal perspective. Section 5 concludes