Economics During the COVID-19 Crisis: Consumer Economics and Basic Supply Chains

Abstract

The Covid-19 pandemic has other perspectives than just the epidemiological one that impacts human lives. In this chapter, we look at the economic perspective by modelling a consumer economic system with a basic supply chain and a very basic government role to create a circular economic system. People have to work at shops or workplaces to earn money to buy food or other items. These items are sold by shops who in turn buy them from workplaces. We devise multiple scenarios to compare the effects of the pandemic, measures to lessen the epidemiological effects and additional economic effects. The results show us that we can: (1) create an useful economic model in the complex ASSOCC context, (2) that from an economic perspective repeated lockdowns are more harmful than not taking any action at all, and (3) economic measures do support economic well being of the population. While it is very clear that the real world is a lot more complex than how we have modelled it, the modelling process helps us pinpoint where next steps of policy investigation, model improvement and research could be performed.