The Covid shock
Covid19 caught us by surprise. The previous comparable event had happened 100 years earlier and it had been named the Spanish flu, and it probably killed more people than World War I. The 1919 lessons learnt by health policy makers such as the US cities and European governments had been long forgotten.
Now we have learnt something
This time, it's 2023, and the Covid years, which are not over, have left a clear memory. We have no excuse, not to go prepared.
What about behavioural economists, looking at the exchange of value, time, tasks, anything, in human groups?
What can they tell us, of practical and explanatory interest for the next wave of Covid, or ahead of a similar event?
Behavioural economics scenarios and the pandemic
Can I suggest to look back at the micro-problem replicated a large number of times worldwide, where each household had to self-manage meals, schooling the children, etc. Trade-offs happened at high frequency between the members of the household, seen as agents in a behavioral nano-economy of the house...
The behavioual economist and a vademecum for the next wave?
What do you consider worthwhile for planning the next wave each household likely to have to isolate for while, at least now and then?
Let me share the assessment and model developed for the case of Covid19 "household lockdown":
REF
[1] Agent Based Model for Covid 19 Transmission: -field approach based on context of interaction, July 2020,R. Di Francesco, DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.24583.83364
Preprint Agent Based Model for Covid 19 Transmission: -field approach...
[2] "Nanoeconomics of Households in Lockdown Using Agent Models during COVID-19," Sustainability, by Javier Cifuentes-Faura & Renaud Di Francesco, 2022, vol. 14(4), pages 1, February.
https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v14y2022i4p2083-d747571.html
[3] Microeconomics of intertemporal choice in zero-space during Covid-19: a behavioral economics perspective. by Cifuentes-Faura, J., Di Francesco, R., J Health Econ 23, 559–563 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10198-021-01403-z
https://publications.iadb.org/en/behavioral-economics-can-help-fight-coronavirus
https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/107502/1/MPRA_paper_107502.pdf
https://wzb.eu/en/research/coronavirus-and-its-impact/what-behavioural-economics-must-learn-from-the-coronavirus-crisis
Behavioural economics must explore the limits of its altruistic paradigm while shedding light on the relationship between laboratory kindness and everyday egoism. The notion of a deeply rooted do-gooderism may indeed flatter our hearts, but it must cloud our understanding of human action in these difficult times (Citation from last source).
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Conclusion:
Choice architecture seems to be central concept (vademecum) from behavioral economics, i.e. monetary compensations do matter in this respect, in terms of effective decision-making.
Aparna Sathya Murthy many thanks for your thoughts. If we use the knowledge and know-how acquired during the heavy Covid years, we can reduce and mitigate the impact of a new wave of the Economy and on Society, worldwide. Not being a medical researcher or practitioner, my own proposal is to study in more detail representative realistic cases of life under Covid restrictions: household living in lock down, behaviours reducing the risk, to be nudged by public policy makers, etc
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