hero working papers

Uncertainty and decision-making during a crisis: How to make policy decisions in the COVID-19 context?

Number: 666
Year: 2020
Author(s): Loïc Berger, Nicolas Berger, Valentina Bosetti, Itzhak Gilboa, Lars Peter Hansen, Christopher Jarvis,Massimo Marinacci, Richard D. Smith
Policymaking during a pandemic can be extremely challenging. As COVID-19 is a new disease and its global impacts are unprecedented, decisions need to be made in a highly uncertain, complex and rapidly changing environment. In such a context, in which human lives and the economy are at stake, we argue that using ideas and constructs from modern decision theory, even informally, will make policymaking more a responsible and transparent process.

Keywords: model uncertainty, ambiguity, robustness, decision rules