The Economic Way of Thinking in a Pandemic

 [[{“value”:”During the pandemic, economists often found themselves at odds with politicians, physicians, epidemiologists and others. Some politicians, for example, were worried that the pharma companies might engage in profiteering while economists worried that the pharma companies were not nearly profitable enough. Physicians focused on maximizing the health of patients while economists focused on maximizing the
The post The Economic Way of Thinking in a Pandemic appeared first on Marginal REVOLUTION.”}]] 

During the pandemic, economists often found themselves at odds with politicians, physicians, epidemiologists and others. Some politicians, for example, were worried that the pharma companies might engage in profiteering while economists worried that the pharma companies were not nearly profitable enough. Physicians focused on maximizing the health of patients while economists focused on maximizing the health of society–during the pandemic these were not the same and this led to disputes over testing, first doses first and human challenge trials. During the pandemic economists were often accused of not staying in their lane. But what is the economist’s lane?

In this talk, I discuss the economic way of thinking and how it conflicted with other ways of thinking. My talk pairs well with my recent paper also titled The Economic Way of Thinking in a Pandemic.

The post The Economic Way of Thinking in a Pandemic appeared first on Marginal REVOLUTION.

 Current Affairs, Economics, Education