Work

Infectious disease control and its economic gains in a pandemic: the case of South Korea

Year: 2022

Type: article

Abstract: We investigate the role of the infectious disease control (IDC) system in curbing the spread of infectious disease and preventing economic damage during the COVID-19 pandemic. To this end, we propose incorporating a clustering analysis into the synthetic control method. This contributes to constructing a homogeneous donor pool, which is necessary for an unbiased treatment effect estimator. South Korea’s effective IDC system, the so-called K-Quarantine, is estimated to have reduced the number of disease infections and to have prevented a 3.6% loss of GDP and a 0.3%p rise in the unemployment rate in South Korea in 2020. These results are robust in an alternative reduced-form regression analysis under various specifications.

Source: Economic Research-Ekonomska Istraživanja

DOI: 10.1080/1331677x.2022.2134904

Authors: Youngjae Lee, Junho Jang, SungJu Song

Institutions: Bank of Korea, Hanyang University

Language: English

Topic: COVID-19 epidemiological studies

Subfield: Modeling and Simulation

Field: Mathematics

Domain: Physical Sciences

SDG: Good health and well-being

Open Access status: gold

Estimated APC paid: $944