No one has all the answers for COVID-19 policy
The trade-offs are evident, but the costs involved are
ambiguous
JOSEPH L. PAGLIARI, JR. notes:
The notion of trade-offs, or the idea that there is an
opportunity cost to any choice, is central to much of economics. The study of
these trade-offs is often associated with traded quantities (the dollar value
of things such as domestic production, interest rates, workers’ salaries,
etc.), but the COVID-19 pandemic places economists in the uncomfortable
position of examining things such as the economic value of human life, the
quality of such lives, and the human stresses related to attending to a
pandemic. Despite the natural discomfort most people (many economists included)
feel about quantifying these things, these economic exercises still play an
important role in our understanding of the situation and our crafting policy to
address it.
The Economic Value of a Human Life
Your Life or Your Livelihood: Americans Wrestle with
Impossible Choice
“…how much exactly is a life worth in dollars? It
is a sticky question, and it happens to be very familiar to economists”.
Putting a Dollar Value on Life? Governments Already
Do
There’s a more accurate way to compare coronavirus
deaths to the flu