List of economists against total lockdowns

Almost all economists with any sense are dead against lockdowns. Here’s a compilation from the internet. This is a placeholder post. Will add more when I find time. Send me more links if you find them.

Of course, don’t forget me: My articles at http://swarnabahrat.in/pandemic + on this blog

.@JohnHCochrane gets it. Sledgehammer #Lockdowns are cures worse than #COVID19. They kill the economies. Instead, follow #Sweden's model. Rapidly #TestandTrace, keep the economy “open”, & trust its citizens to take precautions.https://t.co/splnlFYZ7B

— Prof. Steve Hanke (@steve_hanke) April 11, 2020

Saving lives vs. saving "the economy" is not the tradeoff. The tradeoff is saving lives vs. ruining lives via perpetual lockdown. The costs of the lockdown are hidden from twitter. The people whose lives are being ruined aren't here.

— Russell Roberts (@EconTalker) April 13, 2020

Paul Frijters

‘Hysteria is ruining 10 million lives’: Frijters https://t.co/8ZglTsFy7p

— Adam Creighton (@Adam_Creighton) April 14, 2020

Adam Creighton

A damaging over-reaction to an unremarkable virus https://t.co/xPGsDNKhT6

— Adam Creighton (@Adam_Creighton) April 13, 2020

Let’s hope the economic train crash is worth it – 14 April 2020

Lars Peter Hansen, Economics Nobel winner

THIS QUESTION CAN ONLY BE SOLVED BY ECONOMICS

"trade-off between protecting people and making the accessibility of necessary food and medicine difficult and costly.. Such assessments involve weighing costs and benefits of alternative courses of action." https://t.co/ufuIr6Cg7G

— Sanjeev Sabhlok (@sabhlok) April 15, 2020

Vernon Smith, Nobel in Economics

The greatest public policy risk in the pandemic is that governments local,
central, and worldwide would all seek the same minimum risk policy and follow it.
The first principle in the science of decision is to assess the value or cost of
probabilistic outcomes and weight the outcomes with their value (cost). There is no such thing as a minimum risk policy defined only in terms of unweighted
Outcomes. Covid-19 has very different consequences across population characteristics and necessarily the variability of those characteristics must be part of policy decision making.

Sweden is following a more “relaxed” policy, and will be a source of learning not
Available otherwise. [Source]

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