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Not Just a Concern for the Elderly: Age Gradient in COVID-19-Related Infections in Italy, Spain and the Netherlands

Author

Listed:
  • Simona Bignami-Van Assche
  • Daniela Ghio
  • Ari Van Assche

Abstract

It is often highlighted that the largest number of COVID-19-related fatalities is found among the elderly. Although this is true, it is an important omission not to consider the differential trend of infections across age groups as governments devise strategies to flatten both the infections curve and the economic recession curve. We show how these strategies crucially depend on workforce demographics by drawing from the experience of Italy, Spain and the Netherlands. We suggest that restricting the age of essential workers can be a useful policy to mitigate the work-security trade-off while keeping the economy going. Il est souvent souligné que le plus grand nombre de décès liés au COVID-19 se trouve chez les personnes âgées. Bien que cela soit vrai, il y a une tendance différentielle des infections selon les groupes d'âge qui n’est pas considérée mais qui est très importante quand les gouvernements élaborent leurs stratégies pour aplanir à la fois la courbe des infections et la courbe de la récession économique. Nous montrons comment ces stratégies dépendent de manière cruciale de la démographie de la main-d'œuvre en regardant l'expérience de l'Italie, de l'Espagne et des Pays-Bas. Nous suggérons que la restriction de l'âge des travailleurs essentiels peut être une politique utile pour atténuer le compromis entre la sécurité du travail et le maintien de l'économie.

Suggested Citation

  • Simona Bignami-Van Assche & Daniela Ghio & Ari Van Assche, 2020. "Not Just a Concern for the Elderly: Age Gradient in COVID-19-Related Infections in Italy, Spain and the Netherlands," CIRANO Working Papers 2020s-17, CIRANO.
    • Handle: RePEc:cir:cirwor:2020s-17
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    File URL: https://cirano.qc.ca/files/publications/2020s-17.pdf
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    Cited by:

    1. Simona Bignami-Van Assche & Ari Van Assche, 2020. "Are we Running Blind Towards the Reopening of the Economy? What the Limited Amount of Available Data is and is not Telling us," CIRANO Papers 2020pe-12, CIRANO.

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