A social interaction budget can be part of the response to Covid-19

In the response to COVID-19 governments across the world faced a difficult choice: keep the economy open or open early the economy and face a large number of infections/ deaths (the case of Sweden, US and Brazil) or close important parts of the economy to reduce the number of infections/ deaths (the case of France, Spain, and Italy). There seems to be a trade-off between protecting public health and keeping the economy afloat. In this piece, Alexandra M Bocse (LSE) is arguing that the concept of a social interaction budget, and the way it gets spent, can enable countries to return to economic activity while keeping under control the infection rate.