Economics in the Age of COVID-19

By reading this koob, you will learn how pandemics affect economies and what steps we can take to limit the damage.

You will also learn:

• That pandemics force trade-offs between health and wealth

• That public health is a long-term economic win

• That testing, vaccines, and innovation require serious investment

• That the math of contagion isn’t hard, but it may be hard to believe

• That no country is an island, so beating COVID-19 will require international cooperation

In early 2020, COVID-19 hit the world like a runaway train. The new virus was contagious, disruptive, and sometimes deadly. Worse still, the public knew next to nothing about it. That was where MIT Press stepped in with its First Reads series, which gives fast reactions to urgent global events like COVID. In this first book of the series, published in April 2020, academic Joshua Gans explores the economic choices and changes of the pandemic. Are you ready to learn about the economics of COVID-19?