When Can We Go Out?: Evaluating Policy Paradigms for Responding to the COVID-19 Threat

Our second white paper is "When Can We Go Out?: Evaluating Policy Paradigms for Responding to the COVID-19 Threat," by Danielle Allen,  Lucas Stanczyk, Rajiv Sethi, and Glen Weyl.

Abstract

This paper seeks (1) to explain why public officials in the U.S. are having such difficulty addressing the question of a timetable for their imposition of collective quarantine orders; (2) to explain the two available viable policy approaches and timetables for bringing the COVID-19 pandemic under control (rather than, as on a third possible approach, simply allowing it to run its course); and (3) to argue for the superiority of one approach and timetable, namely, the one we call “Mobilize and Transition,” which contrasts to a timetable we call “Freeze in Place” and also to a third approach, which we call “Surrender.”