O. Andersson, Pol Campos-Mercade, F. Carlsson, Florian H. Schneider, E. Wengström
{"title":"The Individual Welfare Costs of Stay at Home Policies","authors":"O. Andersson, Pol Campos-Mercade, F. Carlsson, Florian H. Schneider, E. Wengström","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.3641781","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3641781","url":null,"abstract":"This paper reports the results of a choice experiment designed to estimate the private welfare costs of stay-at-home policies during the COVID-19 pandemic. The study is conducted on a large and representative sample of the Swedish population. The results suggest that the welfare cost of a one-month stay-at-home policy, restricting non-working hours away from home, amounts to 9.1 percent of Sweden's monthly GDP. The cost can be interpreted as 29,600 quality-adjusted life years (QALYs), which roughly corresponds to between 3,700 and 8,000 COVID-19 fatalities. Moreover, we find that stricter and longer lockdowns are disproportionately more costly than more lenient ones. This result indicates that strict stay-at-home policies are likely to be cost-effective only if they slow the spread of the disease much more than more lenient ones.","PeriodicalId":13563,"journal":{"name":"Insurance & Financing in Health Economics eJournal","volume":"35 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-05-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"80484988","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Maternal Child Care: Some Macroeconomic Implications in the Time of COVID-19","authors":"Mukesh Eswaran","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.3604550","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3604550","url":null,"abstract":"In this paper, I make an attempt to understand the efficacy of some of the current fiscal stimuli being implemented to deal with the ongoing economic disaster precipitated by COVID-19. The focus is on pecuniary externalities working through the demand side, for they seem crucial for recovery. I use a well-known model of the Big Push of the economic development literature for this purpose because it lays bare the essential multiplier process involved. This enables an examination of the role that traditional maternal child care plays in the efficacy of the fiscal policies intended to support the economy and to facilitate recovery. This works through the maternal contribution to human capital during the childhood of the current labor force. Based on the reasoning developed here in the context of COVID-19, I argue for universal and subsidized child care under normal times in view of its long-term macroeconomic consequences. This argument is independent of whether the subsidy elicits greater maternal labor supply.","PeriodicalId":13563,"journal":{"name":"Insurance & Financing in Health Economics eJournal","volume":"55 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-05-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"83094046","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Abstracts for the Digital conference 'Sustainable Development Goals in the Era of COVID-19: The Role of Science, Technology and Innovation'","authors":"Evgeniya A. Starikova","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.3621647","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3621647","url":null,"abstract":"The participation of business in partnership initiatives for sustainable development has intensified significantly since the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992. By 2014, there were about 1,000 voluntary commitments and multilateral partnerships in various fields of activity involving partners from the corporate sector , among which the best-known initiatives are “Sustainable Energy for All” (SE4All), “Every Woman, Every Child” (Every Woman Every Child - EWEC), Business Fights Poverty, Partnerships for Small Island Developing States, and others.<br><br>In our opinion, it seems appropriate to propose the classification of existing partnership models in the interests of achieving the SDGs with the participation of representatives of the corporate sector.<br>","PeriodicalId":13563,"journal":{"name":"Insurance & Financing in Health Economics eJournal","volume":"2013 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-05-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"82680443","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Are Strict Social Distancing Policies Necessary for Economic Recovery after a Pandemic? A Re-Analysis of the 1918 Flu Pandemic","authors":"J. Dul, Marno Verbeek","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.3601901","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3601901","url":null,"abstract":"Pandemics harm the economy Governments use social distancing and other non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPI) to tackle the pandemic Recent data from the 1918","PeriodicalId":13563,"journal":{"name":"Insurance & Financing in Health Economics eJournal","volume":"12 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-05-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"75659808","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Health Status and Repeated Multiple Treatments in Long-Term Care: A Panel Structural Var Analysis","authors":"S. Sugawara, T. Ishihara","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.3589992","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3589992","url":null,"abstract":"This study analyzes the dynamic relationship between health status and expenditures on repeated multiple treatments, which are typical in long-term care. To facilitate causal inferences where complex dynamic interdependencies exist between many variables, we adopt a structural vector autoregression model for panel data of individuals. The model is estimated using a Bayesian shrinkage method which can simultaneously employ estimation and model selection for the lag length. Then, we employ a counterfactual analysis using impulse response functions. We analyze monthly claims data in the context of long-term care in Japan, where social insurance covers many formal services for elderly care at home. Our empirical analysis reveals several patterns of dependency between service utilization and their effects. In particular, we found that day care and outpatient rehabilitation share similar utilization patterns and also result in similar levels of improvement in health status, which implies that appropriate targeting can improve the effectiveness of service provision.","PeriodicalId":13563,"journal":{"name":"Insurance & Financing in Health Economics eJournal","volume":"36 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"82270357","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Reopening Under COVID-19: What to Watch For","authors":"J. Harris","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.3594957","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3594957","url":null,"abstract":"We critically analyze the currently available status indicators of the COVID-19 epidemic so that state governors will have the guideposts necessary to decide whether to further loosen or instead retighten controls on social and economic activity. Overreliance on aggregate, state-level data in Wisconsin, we find, confounds the effects of the spring primary elections and the outbreak among meat packers. Relaxed testing standards in Los Angeles may have upwardly biased the observed trend in new infection rates. Reanalysis of New Jersey data, based upon the date an ultimately fatal case first became ill rather than the date of death, reveals that deaths have already peaked in that state. Evidence from Cook County, Illinois shows that trends in the percentage of positive tests can be wholly misleading. Trends on emergency department visits for influenza-like illness, advocated by the White House Guidelines, are unlikely to be informative. Data on hospital census counts in Orange County, California suggest that healthcare system-based indicators are likely to be more reliable and informative. An analysis of cumulative infections in San Antonio, Texas, shows how mathematical models intended to guide decisions on relaxation of social distancing are severely limited by untested assumptions. Universal coronavirus testing may not on its own solve difficult problems of data interpretation and causal inference.","PeriodicalId":13563,"journal":{"name":"Insurance & Financing in Health Economics eJournal","volume":"61 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"75633160","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"What Does Academic Research Say about Short-Selling Bans?","authors":"Stefano Alderighi, Pedro Gurrola-Perez","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.3775704","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3775704","url":null,"abstract":"As a reaction to higher market volatility due to the global COVID-19 pandemic, in March 2020 some financial regulators imposed short-selling bans on equity markets. Their argument is that short-selling exacerbates downward price movements, thus being responsible for heightened volatility and reduced market confidence. This paper reviews the academic literature on short-selling and short-selling bans, comparing the arguments against banning short-selling with the arguments in favour. We find that the evidence almost unanimously points towards short-selling bans being disruptive for the orderly functioning of markets, as they are found to reduce liquidity, increase price inefficiency and hamper price discovery. In addition, short-selling bans are found to have negative spillover effects on other markets, for example option markets. According to the literature, during periods of price decline and heightened volatility, short-sellers do not behave differently from any other traders, and contribute less to price declines than regular ‘long’ sellers. As research has shown that short-selling bans are more deleterious to markets characterized by a relatively high amount of small stocks, low levels of fragmentation, and fewer alternatives to short-selling, emerging markets should be particularly wary of bans on short-selling.","PeriodicalId":13563,"journal":{"name":"Insurance & Financing in Health Economics eJournal","volume":"347 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-04-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"86798560","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Visualizing Vulnerability and Capturing the Pandemic's Human Toll","authors":"R. Wilson, M. Zellner, Ahoura Zandiatashbar","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.3888403","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3888403","url":null,"abstract":"COVID-19 has created a crisis with little precedent. Illinoisans have lost family members. People have died in hospitals alone. But the human toll of the pandemic can be measured in more than lives lost. There have been other health effects, such as delayed surgery and lack of access to primary and behavioral healthcare. Many have lost jobs, which means lost health insurance, lost wages, and food insecurity. In Illinois, a half million people filed for unemployment in five weeks. For most people, the ability to shelter, clothe, feed, and care for ourselves and our families comes through productive work. Staying at home has created the potential for increased incidents of partner and child abuse. Sheltering in place has led to feelings of hopelessness and isolation. It has frayed emotions and relationships. The existential threat posed by COVID-19 is unlike anything most Americans have experienced—except, perhaps, those who lived through the Great Depression. The Institute of Government and Public Affairs (IGPA) launched a series of Pandemic Stress Indicators to measure and document the social and economic toll of the pandemic. For the first Pandemic Stress Indicator, IGPA collaborated with the University of Illinois Chicago’s Urban Data Visualization Lab to develop maps that visualize and identify compounding vulnerabilities, both to COVID-19 and to the socio-economic impact of the pandemic. Many Illinoisans face compounding vulnerabilities: to the virus itself and to the economic repercussions. Some came into the pandemic with hypertension, cardiovascular, and other health conditions that increase the risk for being a severe patient. Others struggled financially long before the pandemic. Persons of color and those living in poverty number among those hardest hit by the pandemic. Developing a wholistic understanding of the pandemic’s human toll and visualizing vulnerabilities of persons and communities is crucial to minimizing the pandemic’s total harm, while helping fragile persons and populations to emerge as unscathed as possible.","PeriodicalId":13563,"journal":{"name":"Insurance & Financing in Health Economics eJournal","volume":"186 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-04-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"88016549","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Talk about the Coronavirus Pandemic: Initial Evidence from Corporate Disclosures","authors":"Victor X. Wang, Betty (Bin) Xing","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.3585951","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3585951","url":null,"abstract":"The novel Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has become the world’s center of attention in 2020. In this paper, we examine firm disclosures of COVID-19 during the first quarter of 2020, a time when firms face tremendous uncertainty and have little guidance on what and how to disclose. We compare Coronavirus-related disclosures in SEC filings and earnings conference calls with the timeline of the spread of the disease and with information gathering and disseminating activities in Google searches and news articles. We find that initial corporate disclosures are driven by information demand, and firm managers are proactive in providing information to investors. Our topic modelling analysis shows that although firms recognize the massive impact of the pandemic on their operations, their disclosures in SEC filings are general and lack specifics. Finally, we find that analysts are proactive in raising questions regarding the impact of COVID-19 during the Q&A session of the conference calls, and that firm managers are quick to provide necessary disclosures in the presentation session as the pandemic develops.","PeriodicalId":13563,"journal":{"name":"Insurance & Financing in Health Economics eJournal","volume":"19 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-04-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"83044878","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Mario Arturo Ruiz Estrada, Evangelos Koutronas, Minsoo Lee
{"title":"Stagpression: The Economic and Financial Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic","authors":"Mario Arturo Ruiz Estrada, Evangelos Koutronas, Minsoo Lee","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.3593144","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3593144","url":null,"abstract":"This paper formulates an analytical framework to understand the spatiotemporal patterns of epidemic disease occurrence, its relevance, and implications to financial markets activity. The paper suggests a paradigm shift: a new multi-dimensional geometric approach to capture all symmetrical and asymmetrical strategic graphical movement. Furthermore, it introduces the concept of stagpression, a new economic phenomenon to explain the uncharted territory the world economies and financial markets are getting into. The Massive Pandemic Contagious Diseases Damage on Stock Markets Simulator (φ-Simulator) to evaluate the determinants of capital markets behavior in the presence of an infectious disease outbreak. The model investigates the impact of Covid-19 on the performance of ten stock markets, including S&P 500, TWSE, Shanghai Stock Exchange, Nikkei 225, DAX, Hang Seng, U.K.-FTSE, KRX, SGX, and Malaysia-FTSE.","PeriodicalId":13563,"journal":{"name":"Insurance & Financing in Health Economics eJournal","volume":"31 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-04-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"88337682","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}