Panel Discussion of: Safe choices?

ABSTRACT

Dirk Krueger replied to the discussants. Responding to Federica Romei, he first said that in the model, depending on the assumptions, there can be an isomorphism from getting consumption generating infections versus infections at work, so it is possible to reformulate the model and make the two equivalent. He also noted that in the paper the authors tried to sketch in a stylized way the decisions made by Swedish policymakers and that it is true that in practice some social distancing measures were put in place. He said that these social distancing measures may partially capture the time varying infection parameters. He also added that on the economic side there were some restrictions;hence, it may be possible that the characterization made in the model is too extreme, but he still believes it is a fairly accurate approximation.