The developing COVID-19 pandemic could be the worst global pandemic since the 1918 influenza pandemic and may have caused the largest economic contraction since the Great Depression. Because of the nature of this situation as both a public health crisis and an economic crisis, topics of paramount interest include understanding the relationship between the spread of disease and economic activity, the role for government intervention in the crisis, and the effectiveness of testing and containment policies. Economists have responded quickly to provide insights into these questions, yielding a rapidly growing body of ... (full story)