Covid and social distancing with a heterogenous population.
Miltiadis Makris
Abstract
population segments. We find that policies that shut down some of the essential sectors have a stronger impact on the death toll than on infections and herd immunity compared to policies that shut down non-essential sectors. Furthermore, there might not be an after-wave after policies that shut down some of the essential sectors are lifted. Restrictions on social distancing can generate welfare gains relative to the case of no intervention. Milder but longer restrictions on less essential activities might be better in terms of these welfare gains than stricter but shorter restrictions, whereas the opposite might be the case for restrictions on more essential activities. Finally, shutting down some of the more essential sectors might generate larger welfare gains than shutting down the less essential sectors.