An informed strategy for lockdown exit

The only to way to climb back to obstacle-free growth would be more and randomised testing. The government needs to make a much larger financial allocation towards that

Economists have started writing somewhat furiously on the economic impact of Covid-19. One could perhaps argue that this is about the worst time to heed their ad­vice. Things are best left to the medical community and epidemiologists. How­ever, this emerging economic “literature” on Covid (ELC in short) raises some interesting issues that the government might take on board in devising a strategy that balances the need to save lives with the need to save livelihoods.

Here’s how ELC frames the policy problem. The key constraint during a lo­ckdown is the freeze in labour supply that “social distancing” demands. The endeavour