Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/259768 
Year of Publication: 
2021
Citation: 
[Journal:] Swiss Journal of Economics and Statistics [ISSN:] 2235-6282 [Volume:] 157 [Issue:] 1 [Article No.:] 4 [Publisher:] Springer [Place:] Heidelberg [Year:] 2021 [Pages:] 1-21
Publisher: 
Springer, Heidelberg
Abstract: 
The implementation of a lockdown to control the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic has led to a strong economic and political debate in several countries. This makes it crucial to shed light on the actual benefits of such kind of policy. To this purpose, we focus on the Swiss lockdown during the first wave of COVID-19 infections and estimate the number of potentially saved lives. To predict the number of deaths in the absence of any restrictive measure, we develop a novel age-structured SIRDC model which accounts for age-specific endogenous behavioral responses and for seasonal patterns in the spread of the virus. Including the additional fatalities which would have materialized because of the shortage of healthcare resources, our estimates suggest that the lockdown prevented more than 11,200 deaths between March and the beginning of September 2020.
Subjects: 
COVID-19
Lockdown
Saved lives
SIRDC model
SIR model
Behavioral responses
JEL: 
I18
D91
H12
Persistent Identifier of the first edition: 
Creative Commons License: 
cc-by Logo
Document Type: 
Article

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