The Economy, Climate Change and Infectious Diseases: Links and Policy Implications

Abstract

This short paper provides a modeling framework for unifying the economy, climate change and the outbreak of infectious diseases such as the recent COVID-19 pandemic. We stress that continuous growth of consumption activities, capital accumulation and climate change could increase the potential of the epidemic, its contact number or the probability of its arrival. This framework of analysis allows us to think of infectious disease policies in two stages. In the short run, containment policies like social distancing could help to stop the epidemic. In the medium and the long run, economic policies could help to reduce the potential of the epidemic or the probability of its emergence.