Agents signal their type in a principal-agent model; the principal seeks to retain good agents. Types are signaled with some ambient noise. Agents can choose to add or remove additional noise at a cost. It is shown that monotone retention strategies, in which the principal keeps the agent if the...

India's case fatality rate (CFR) under covid-19 is strikingly low, trending from 3% or more, to a current level of around 2.2%. The world average rate is far higher, at around 4%. Several observers have noted that this difference is at least partly due to India's younger age distribution. In...

We provide an interim report on the Indian lockdown provoked by the covid-19 pandemic. The main topics -- ranging from the philosophy of lockdown to the provision of relief measures -- transcend the Indian case. A recurrent theme is the enormous visibility of covid-19 deaths worldwide, with...