A Theory of Stock Exchange Competition and Innovation: Will the Market Fix the Market?
/in financial market design, Highlights Recent, patents and innovation, Research Papers, Research Papers, working papersThe Economic Limits of Bitcoin and Anonymous, Decentralized Trust on the Blockchain
/in bitcoin and blockchain, Highlights Recent, Research Papers, working papersMaximize Utility Subject to R ≤ 1: A Simple Price-Theory Approach to Covid-19 Lockdown and Reopening Policy
/in COVID-19 policy, Research papers, working papersThis note suggests that we view R < 1 as an economic constraint, allowing social welfare in the traditional sense (economic activity, societal well-being) to be the policy objective. This formulation highlights two key questions at the intersection of health and economics research in response to the Covid-19 crisis. First, what activities maximize social welfare subject to the constraint that disease-transmission is contained, i.e., R < 1. Second, what are ways to “expand the frontier” of how much social welfare we can achieve while keeping disease-transmission contained. For example, could widespread use of masks and gloves, society-wide campaigns to “wash your hands,” “stay home if sick,” and “don’t touch your face,” and aggressive testing, together allow us to meaningfully increase the level of economic activity and societal well-being that is possible while keeping R < 1?
Eric Budish
Paul G. McDermott Professor of Economics and Entrepreneurship
Centel Foundation/Robert P. Reuss Faculty Scholar