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The Pandemic Information Gap

The Brutal Economics of COVID-19

Author Joshua Gans
Ebook
The MIT Press
On sale Nov 10, 2020 | 160 Pages | 9780262362818
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Why solving the information problem should be at the core of our pandemic response: essential reading about the long-term implications of our current crisis.

COVID-19 is caused by a virus. The COVID-19 pandemic is caused by a lack of good information. A pandemic is essentially an information problem: this is the enlightening and provocative idea at the heart of this book. If we solve the information problem, argues economist Joshua Gans, we can defeat the virus. For example, when we don't know who is infected, we have to act as if everyone is infected. If we actively manage the information problem--if we know who is infected and with whom they had contact--we can suppress the virus or buy time for vaccine development.

This is an expanded version of an eBook originally published as Economics in the Age of COVID-19.
1 All about Information 1
2 Health before Wealth 13
3 Predictable Surprises 29
4 Telling the Truth 45
5 A War Footing 57
6 This Time It Really Is Different 71
7 The Testing Economy 87
8 Keeping It to Yourself 105
9 Reemergence 115
10 Rallying Innovation 125
11 The Big Rationing 143
12 The Future 151
Notes 163
About the Author 199
Joshua Gans is Professor of Strategic Management and holds the Jeffrey S. Skoll Chair of Technical Innovation and Entrepreneurship at the University of Toronto's Rotman School of Management. He is the author of The Disruption Dilemma (MIT Press), Prediction Machines, and other books, and coauthor of Innovation + Equality (MIT Press).
Joshua Gans View titles by Joshua Gans

About

Why solving the information problem should be at the core of our pandemic response: essential reading about the long-term implications of our current crisis.

COVID-19 is caused by a virus. The COVID-19 pandemic is caused by a lack of good information. A pandemic is essentially an information problem: this is the enlightening and provocative idea at the heart of this book. If we solve the information problem, argues economist Joshua Gans, we can defeat the virus. For example, when we don't know who is infected, we have to act as if everyone is infected. If we actively manage the information problem--if we know who is infected and with whom they had contact--we can suppress the virus or buy time for vaccine development.

This is an expanded version of an eBook originally published as Economics in the Age of COVID-19.

Table of Contents

1 All about Information 1
2 Health before Wealth 13
3 Predictable Surprises 29
4 Telling the Truth 45
5 A War Footing 57
6 This Time It Really Is Different 71
7 The Testing Economy 87
8 Keeping It to Yourself 105
9 Reemergence 115
10 Rallying Innovation 125
11 The Big Rationing 143
12 The Future 151
Notes 163
About the Author 199

Author

Joshua Gans is Professor of Strategic Management and holds the Jeffrey S. Skoll Chair of Technical Innovation and Entrepreneurship at the University of Toronto's Rotman School of Management. He is the author of The Disruption Dilemma (MIT Press), Prediction Machines, and other books, and coauthor of Innovation + Equality (MIT Press).
Joshua Gans View titles by Joshua Gans

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