Lives versus Livelihoods during the COVID-19 Pandemic : How Testing Softens the Trade-off
The early COVID-19 pandemic literature focused on the conflict between lives and livelihoods. But cross-country evidence reveals that across countries high mortality rates were often associated with large gross domestic product contractions. This p...
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World Bank, Washington, DC
2021
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| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/637661623359741565/Lives-versus-Livelihoods-during-the-COVID-19-Pandemic-How-Testing-Softens-the-Trade-off http://hdl.handle.net/10986/35766 |
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okr-10986-357662021-06-18T05:10:55Z Lives versus Livelihoods during the COVID-19 Pandemic : How Testing Softens the Trade-off Islamaj, Ergys Le, Duong Trung Mattoo, Aaditya CORONAVIRUS COVID-19 PANDEMIC IMPACT LOCKDOWN TESTING LIVELIHOODS INCOME LOSS FATALITY RATE The early COVID-19 pandemic literature focused on the conflict between lives and livelihoods. But cross-country evidence reveals that across countries high mortality rates were often associated with large gross domestic product contractions. This paper shows that the presumed trade-off was associated with lockdowns as the primary instrument of containment. Early transition from lockdowns to testing-tracing-isolation-based containment softened the trade-off within countries and explains the absence of a trade-off across countries. The analysis finds that testing had positive indirect effects on growth and perhaps even positive direct effects. By allowing countries to relax shutdowns without compromising on containment, testing could have indirectly contributed to about a 0.6 percentage point boost in growth. By infusing greater confidence in people to step out and engage in economic activity, testing could have added another 0.6 percentage point to growth. As the world struggles to scale up vaccination in the face of new waves and variants, continued emphasis on testing could help limit infection without recourse to costly lockdowns. 2021-06-17T16:13:19Z 2021-06-17T16:13:19Z 2021-06 Working Paper http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/637661623359741565/Lives-versus-Livelihoods-during-the-COVID-19-Pandemic-How-Testing-Softens-the-Trade-off http://hdl.handle.net/10986/35766 English Policy Research Working Paper;No. 9696 CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo World Bank World Bank, Washington, DC Publications & Research Publications & Research :: Policy Research Working Paper East Asia and Pacific East Asia Oceania |
| repository_type |
Digital Repository |
| institution_category |
Foreign Institution |
| institution |
Digital Repositories |
| building |
World Bank Open Knowledge Repository |
| collection |
World Bank |
| language |
English |
| topic |
CORONAVIRUS COVID-19 PANDEMIC IMPACT LOCKDOWN TESTING LIVELIHOODS INCOME LOSS FATALITY RATE |
| spellingShingle |
CORONAVIRUS COVID-19 PANDEMIC IMPACT LOCKDOWN TESTING LIVELIHOODS INCOME LOSS FATALITY RATE Islamaj, Ergys Le, Duong Trung Mattoo, Aaditya Lives versus Livelihoods during the COVID-19 Pandemic : How Testing Softens the Trade-off |
| geographic_facet |
East Asia and Pacific East Asia Oceania |
| relation |
Policy Research Working Paper;No. 9696 |
| description |
The early COVID-19 pandemic literature
focused on the conflict between lives and livelihoods. But
cross-country evidence reveals that across countries high
mortality rates were often associated with large gross
domestic product contractions. This paper shows that the
presumed trade-off was associated with lockdowns as the
primary instrument of containment. Early transition from
lockdowns to testing-tracing-isolation-based containment
softened the trade-off within countries and explains the
absence of a trade-off across countries. The analysis finds
that testing had positive indirect effects on growth and
perhaps even positive direct effects. By allowing countries
to relax shutdowns without compromising on containment,
testing could have indirectly contributed to about a 0.6
percentage point boost in growth. By infusing greater
confidence in people to step out and engage in economic
activity, testing could have added another 0.6 percentage
point to growth. As the world struggles to scale up
vaccination in the face of new waves and variants, continued
emphasis on testing could help limit infection without
recourse to costly lockdowns. |
| format |
Working Paper |
| author |
Islamaj, Ergys Le, Duong Trung Mattoo, Aaditya |
| author_facet |
Islamaj, Ergys Le, Duong Trung Mattoo, Aaditya |
| author_sort |
Islamaj, Ergys |
| title |
Lives versus Livelihoods during the COVID-19 Pandemic : How Testing Softens the Trade-off |
| title_short |
Lives versus Livelihoods during the COVID-19 Pandemic : How Testing Softens the Trade-off |
| title_full |
Lives versus Livelihoods during the COVID-19 Pandemic : How Testing Softens the Trade-off |
| title_fullStr |
Lives versus Livelihoods during the COVID-19 Pandemic : How Testing Softens the Trade-off |
| title_full_unstemmed |
Lives versus Livelihoods during the COVID-19 Pandemic : How Testing Softens the Trade-off |
| title_sort |
lives versus livelihoods during the covid-19 pandemic : how testing softens the trade-off |
| publisher |
World Bank, Washington, DC |
| publishDate |
2021 |
| url |
http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/637661623359741565/Lives-versus-Livelihoods-during-the-COVID-19-Pandemic-How-Testing-Softens-the-Trade-off http://hdl.handle.net/10986/35766 |
| _version_ |
1764483732550451200 |