While few economists dispute that governments should have some role in dealing with pandemics, the relevant institutional question is whether governments can deal with pandemics. In this article, we argue that there are trade-offs embedded with the provision of public health measures. States...

This paper examines the political economy of epidemic disease. First, it outlines the incentive and information problems facing policymakers in responding to a new epidemic. Second, it considers the existence of a possible tradeoff between public health and freedom. Informed by a survey of the...

The COVID-19 pandemic poses novel health issues. However, the benefits and costs of the pandemic and policies to address it have a familiar economic structure. Chief among the health-related benefits are the monetized values of the U.S. mortality costs of $3.9 trillion in 2020. The combined U.S....

Objectives: To investigate whether social trust is associated with more stress symptoms among middle-aged and older adults in six East and Southeast Asia regions during the COVID-19 pandemic.Methods: This multi-region study used cross-sectional survey data collected in May 2020. Participants...

We use high-frequency Google search data, combined with data on the announcement dates of non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) during the COVID-19 pandemic in U.S. states, to isolate the direct impact of state-level NPIs on own-state unemployment in an event study framework. Exploiting the...

Child poverty increased dramatically during the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2020 alone, the number of children suffering from poverty in the EU increased by 19 percent, or close to 1 million. Left unaddressed, this would not only affect individuals’ life prospects and well-being but also have...

This study assesses the level of awareness of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic and the extent of the government's preparedness in Nigeria. It examines the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on the income level of households in Nigeria, the prices of goods and services as well as financial...

This study investigated the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on the health, food security and financial lives of Nigerian households. The data for the study were collected using a questionnaire for 813 households from the six geo-political zones in Nigeria and the results were analysed using...

This study carries out a cross-country analysis of changes in quantity and quality of life during the first six months of the COVID-19 pandemic (11 March to 11 September 2020) for 124 countries. Changes in quantity of life are measured as life years lost to COVID-19, including excess deaths not...

Using detailed daily information covering 100 countries and an event-study approach, we estimate the short run effects of implementing Non-Pharmaceutical Interventions (NPIs) on the spread of the COVID-19 virus at the early stages of the pandemic. We study the impact of two NPIs -stay-at-home...