
COVID-19 Economic Impact and Recovery Framework (working paper) [pdf] - troydavis
https://blogs.microsoft.com/wp-content/uploads/prod/sites/5/2020/06/COVID-Economic-Impact-WhitePaper-FINAL-6-16.pdf
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troydavis
Background: [https://blogs.microsoft.com/on-the-
issues/2020/06/17/social-...](https://blogs.microsoft.com/on-the-
issues/2020/06/17/social-contact-covid-19-recovery/)

> “Social contact” used to be something we didn’t have to think about. It was
> a byproduct of going to the store or the gym, often viewed as a positive
> byproduct. Since the start of COVID-19, it comes at a high price. Today, it
> can perhaps be compared to carbon emissions: an unwelcome byproduct of
> economic activity. One can lead to pollution; the other to infection. In
> economic terms, social contact has become a scarce resource. It has become
> the linchpin between managing infections and protecting the economy – it is
> what is driving up infection rates but is also needed for economic activity.
> By treating it as an economically scarce resource, it raises three critical
> questions that we began to address in the paper in a data-driven way:

> How much room do we have to open the economy (“social contact budget”)?

> How do we best spend the budget (“return on social contact”)?

> How do we grow our social contact budget over time (“reducing cost of social
> contact”)?

