Beyond COVID-19 : Lockdown: A Coasean Approach with Optionality

Maintaining across-the-board restrictions is socially and economically costly, has adverse distributional impacts, and is poorly targeted in terms of protecting health and health care provision. Instead a win–win ‘Coasean’ social contract could be forged to protect older people and other at- risk groups coupled with freedom from lockdown for everyone else. The social contract could involve a period of support and extra payments to older age groups to commit to home quaran- tine, but with the possibility of opting out. Younger cohorts would be given the option of taking greater risks in return for liberty, fraternity, and greater economic participation. By doing so they would benefit themselves, but also support society economically and through acquired immunity