The Ought-Does Gap in Pandemic Policy
44 Pages Posted: 21 Sep 2023
Date Written: September 21, 2023
Abstract
Positive economic analysis brings tradeoffs, unintended consequences, and the role of policy in shaping individual behavior in analyzing pandemic policy responses. Welfare economics builds a set of normative recommendations about how government ought to respond to a pandemic. But there is often a divergence between what welfare economics recommends and what governments do. We call this divergence the ought-does gap. Two sources for this gap include knowledge problems and misaligned political incentives. Knowledge problems limit the set of feasible policy responses that governments can successfully administer. Misaligned incentives drive a wedge between policies that should be implemented and those that governments in fact attempt. While the paper's main argument takes a very general approach to normative analysis, we conclude with a discussion of what is missing from this approach. Government policy generally, including pandemic policy, should prioritize institutional robustness and economic growth for a wide range of reasons, public health being just one.
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