Four new NBER working papers, distributed this week, examine economic and health outcomes of the coronavirus outbreak under various containment strategies in the United States, China, and Italy.

One shows that testing at a higher rate in conjunction with targeted quarantine policies can reduce both the economic impact of the coronavirus and peak symptomatic infections. Another explores the benefits of randomly testing the general population to determine the asymptomatic infection rate. An analysis of Chinese efforts to contain the coronavirus outbreak measures the effectiveness of the lockdown of Wuhan and enhanced social distancing policies in other cities. And a study of Italians' expectations about the duration of self-isolation requirements demonstrates the importance of communication and persuasion for effective virus containment strategies.

Other recent NBER studies of the impact of coronavirus containment efforts, as well as earlier studies of economic and other consequences of previous epidemics, are available here.