Pol Antràs, Stephen J. Redding, Esteban Rossi-Hansberg: Globalization and Pandemics, in. NBER Working Paper Series, Working Paper No. 27840 (September 2020). The authors develop a model of human interaction to analyze the relationship between globalization and pandemics. Their framework provides joint microfoundations for the gravity equation for international trade and the Susceptible-Infected-Recovered (SIR) model of disease dynamics. The authors show that there are cross-country epidemiological externalities, such that whether a global pandemic breaks out depends critically on the disease environment in the country with the highest rates of domestic infection.
Monthly archives: March 2021
13 posts
Johan Fourie, Jonathan Jayes: Health inequality and the 1918 influenza in South Africa, in: CAGE Online Working Paper Series No. 532 (January 2021), pp. 1-35. The 1918 influenza – the “Spanish flu” – killed an estimated 6% of South Africans. Not all were equally affected. Mortality rates were particularly high in districts with a large share of black and coloured residents. To investigate why this happened, the authors transcribed 39,482 death certificates from the Cape Province.
Sergi Basco, Jordi Domènech, Joan R. Rosés: Unequal Mortality during the Spanish Flu, in The London School of Economics and Poltical Science, Economic History Department, Economic History Working Papers No. 325 (February 2021). The outburst of deaths and cases of Covid-19 around the world has renewed the interest to understand the mortality effects of pandemics across regions, occupations, age and gender. According to the authors the “Spanish Flu” is the closest pandemic to Covid-19.
Maciej Stefański: GDP Effects of Pandemics: A Historical Perspective, in: Collegium of Economic Analysis Working Paper Series, Working Paper 2020/057 (December 2020). The author estimates dynamic effects of pandemics on Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita with local projections, controlling for the effects of wars and weather conditions, using a novel dataset that covers 33 countries and stretches back to the 13th century.
Enrico Berkes, Olivier Deschenes, Ruben Gaetani, Jeffrey Lin, Christopher Severen: Lockdowns and Innovation: Evidence from the 1918 Flu Pandemic, in: NBER Working Paper Series, Working Paper 28152 (November 2020), DOI: 10.3386/w28152. In their article, the authors address the question of whether social distancing harms innovation. They provide an assessment of the effect of non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) on local inventions.
Robert J. Barro, José F. Ursua, Joanna Weng: The Coronavirus and the Great Influenza Epidemic. Lessons from the “Spanish Flu” for the Coronavirus’s Potential Effects on Mortality and Economic Activity, in: NBER Working Paper Series, Working Paper 26866, March/April 2020. According to the authors of this paper, mortality and economic contraction during the 1918-1920 Great Influenza Pandemic provide plausible upper bounds for outcomes under the coronavirus (COVID-19).
Ricardo F. Savaris, Guilherme Pumi, Jovani Dalzochio, Rafael Kunst: Stay-at-home policy is a case of exception fallacy: an internet-based ecological study, in: Scientific Reports 11 (2021) Article 5313, DOI: 10.1038/s41598-021-84092-1. A recent mathematical model has suggested that staying at home did not play a dominant role in reducing COVID‑19 transmission. The second wave of cases in Europe, in regions that were considered as COVID‑19 controlled, may raise some concerns. The authors objective was to assess the association between staying at home (%) and the reduction/increase in the number of deaths due to COVID‑19 in several regions in the world.
Paul R. Hunter, Felipe J. Colón-González, Julii Brainard, Steven Rushton: Impact of non-pharmaceutical interventions against COVID-19 in Europe: A quasi-experimental study, in: medRxiv, July 2020, doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.05.01.20088260. The current COVID-19 epidemic is unparalleled in recent history as are the social distancing interventions that have led to a significant halt on the economic and social life of so many countries. However, there is very little empirical evidence about which social distancing measures have the most impact. The authors report a quasi-experimental study of the impact of various interventions for control of the outbreak.
Charles A. E. Goodhart, Donato Masciandaro, Stefano Ugolini: Pandemic recession, helicopter money and central banking: Venice, 1630, in: CEPR discussion paper series, Discussion Paper No. 15715, London, January 2021. This paper analyses the monetary policy that the Most Serene Republic of Venice implemented in the years of calamities using a modern equivalent of helicopter money, precisely an extraordinary money issuing, coupled with capital losses for the issuer.
Jan M. Brauner et al: Inferring the effectiveness of government interventions against Covid-19, in Science 371 (February 2021) no. 6531, pp. 1-8, DOI: 10.1126/science.abd9338. Governments are attempting to control the COVID-19 pandemic with nonpharmaceutical interventions (NPIs). However, the effectiveness of various NPIs at reducing transmission is poorly understood. The authors collected chronological data on the implementation of NPIs for several European and non-European countries between January and the end of May 2020.
Philipp Ager, Katherine Eriksson, Ezra Karger, Peter Nencka, Melissa A. Thomasson: School Closures During the 1918 Flu Pandemic, in: NBER Working Paper Series, Working Paper No. 28246 (December 2020), DOI: 10.3386/w28246. The Covid 19 pandemic has reignited interest in responses to the 1918/19 influenza pandemic, the last comparable public health emergency in the United States. During both pandemics, many state and local governments made the controversial decision to close schools. The authors studied the short- and long-term effects of 1918-19 pandemic-related school closures on children.
Marco Del Angel, Caroline Fohlin, Marc D. Weidenmier: Do Global Pandemics Matter for Stock Prices? Lessons from the 1918 Spanish Flu, in: NBER Working Paper Series, Working Paper 28356, January 2021, DOI: 10.3386/w28356. The authors examine the impact of the 1918 “Spanish” flu on stock prices in the United States.
Rabail Chaudhry, George Dranitsaris, Talha Mubashir, Justyna Bartoszko, Sheila Riazi: A country level analysis measuring the impact of government actions, country preparedness and socioeconomic factors on COVID-19 mortality and related health outcomes, in: EClinicalMedicine 25 (2020) 100464, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eclinm.2020.100464. The authors conducted a country-level exploratoy analysis to assess the impact of timing and nature of national health policies or actions taken on COVID-19 mortality and related health outcomes.