Environment, public debt and epidemics

Marion Davin (), Mouez Fodha and Thomas Seegmuller

CEE-M Working Papers from CEE-M, Universtiy of Montpellier, CNRS, INRA, Montpellier SupAgro

Abstract: We study whether fiscal policies, especially public debt, can help to curb the macroeconomic and health consequences of epidemics. Our approach is based on three main features: we introduce the dynamics of epidemics in an overlapping generations model to take into account that old people are more vulnerable; people are more easily infected when pollution is high; public spending and public debt can be used to tackle the effects of epidemics. We show that fiscal policies can promote the convergence to a stable steady state with no epidemics. When public policies are not able to permanently eradicate the epidemic, public debt and income transfers could reduce the number of infected people and increase capital and GDP per capita. As a prerequisite, pollution intensity should not be too high. Finally, we define a household subsidy policy which eliminates income and welfare inequalities between healthy and infected individuals.

Keywords: public debt; epidemics; pollution; overlapping generations (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021-05-07
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dge, nep-env and nep-mac
Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://shs.hal.science/halshs-03222251v2
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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Related works:
Journal Article: Environment, public debt, and epidemics (2023)
Working Paper: Environment, public debt and epidemics (2023)
Working Paper: Environment, public debt and epidemics (2023)
Working Paper: Environment, public debt and epidemics (2021)
Working Paper: Environment, public debt and epidemics (2021)
Working Paper: Environment, public debt and epidemics (2021)
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