TY - CHAP
T1 - The Fight Against COVID-19
T2 - The Gap Between Epidemiologic and Economic Approaches
AU - Platteau, Jean Philippe
AU - Weber, Shlomo
AU - Wiesmeth, Hans
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022.
PY - 2023/1/1
Y1 - 2023/1/1
N2 - Epidemiologists use certain models (SIR or SEIR models, for example) to describe the natural evolution of an epidemic or a pandemic. The parameters of these models are based on various assumptions regarding biological and social key parameters. In contrast to this approach, economists consider human actions as the outcome of optimizing behavior based on private costs, benefits, and beliefs, which are especially important for identifying vaccination strategies. The corresponding literature can be divided into two types depending on whether individuals are assumed to operate freely in a decentralized manner or are subject to the public prescriptions of a central decision-maker acting as a benevolent social planner. This paper explores this literature and provides various examples showing, in particular, that this economic approach can help to explain part of the difference between the number of confirmed COVID-19 infections and the number predicted by epidemiological models.
AB - Epidemiologists use certain models (SIR or SEIR models, for example) to describe the natural evolution of an epidemic or a pandemic. The parameters of these models are based on various assumptions regarding biological and social key parameters. In contrast to this approach, economists consider human actions as the outcome of optimizing behavior based on private costs, benefits, and beliefs, which are especially important for identifying vaccination strategies. The corresponding literature can be divided into two types depending on whether individuals are assumed to operate freely in a decentralized manner or are subject to the public prescriptions of a central decision-maker acting as a benevolent social planner. This paper explores this literature and provides various examples showing, in particular, that this economic approach can help to explain part of the difference between the number of confirmed COVID-19 infections and the number predicted by epidemiological models.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85172111995&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1007/978-3-031-05946-9_22
DO - 10.1007/978-3-031-05946-9_22
M3 - Chapter
AN - SCOPUS:85172111995
SN - 9783031059452
SP - 453
EP - 471
BT - Diffusive Spreading in Nature, Technology and Society, Second Edition
PB - Springer International Publishing AG
ER -
