What is the Price for Flattening the Infection Curve?

In the current discussion on the Corona pandemic, the trade-off between saving the economy and saving human lives plays a central role. What is the price of a human life? And what proportion of the gross domestic product is worth flattening the infection curve? Answering these questions requires a health economic analysis and is the subject of the current scientific publication by Dr Dr Afschin Gandjour, Professor of Health Management at Frankfurt School of Finance & Management. His calculation shows that a successful shutdown in Germany increases the remaining life expectancy – on average of the total population – by 0.6 months, which implies a maximum willingness to pay of 13% of the gross domestic product.

"In my analysis, I intentionally referred to the calculation of years of life gained, rather than the number of lives saved. In this way, the benefit of a shutdown can be quantified even more precisely", says Dr Dr Afschin Gandjour. "In addition, the calculation also allows saying something about the willingness to pay for human lives”

Download the publication here.