The Economic Frontiers Program investigated different aspects of the Covid-19 pandemic and pandemics in general and published their work in a wide range of scientific journals.

On the occasion of the COVID-19 pandemic, but extending to other modern disease contexts, in a collaborative effort with colleagues from the Harvard School of Public Health and the Vienna University of Economics of Business, EF researchers have explored and interpreted the extant literature on the containment and macroeconomic impacts of a range of modern infectious diseases, distilling insights that include lessons learned from COVID-19 experience but also stretch to contexts beyond.

Bloom, D.E., Kuhn, M., & Prettner, K. (2022). Modern Infectious Diseases: Macroeconomic Impacts and Policy Responses. Journal of Economic Literature 60 (1) 85-131. 10.1257/jel.20201642.

Other research on Covid-19 related topics in the Economic Frontiers Program can be clustered into four categories.

Vaccine intervention

Optimal pandemic management

Researchers in the EF Program have worked on several projects and published multiple papers on different aspects of the management of the spread of an infectious disease.

Vaccine

Vaccine emergence and resistance

With the ongoing SARS-CoV-2 pandemic an issue of controlling the evolution and spread of novel variants is becoming very important. Yuliya Kulikova together with colleagues investigated the three main factors of particular epidemiological concern: higher infectivity, immunogenic drift (vaccine resistance), and increased virulence. In a new project, they also investigated how complex vaccination strategies can prevent the emergence of vaccine resistance.

Corona Virus

Importance of monitoring break-through infections

In cooperation with colleagues from the Wittgenstein Centre for Global Human Capital Sanchez-Romero investigated the impact of COVID-19 vaccines on the Case Fatality Rate (CFR) with specific focus on the monitoring of break-through infections.

Generations

Generational Impact of Covid-19

Miguel Sanchez-Romero conducted an in-depth investigation on the important aspect of the current COVID-19 crisis that not all age groups are equally affected by the pandemic.