Did the costs outweigh the benefits?
By
May 27, 2021
As government-imposed pandemic lockdowns begin to wind down, policymakers, analysts and citizens turn their attention to the question of how well states and political leaders balanced their costs and benefits.
This topic was the focus of a virtual event, “Are Lockdowns Effective? How to Measure the Impact of COVID-19 Policies,” sponsored by the Mackinac Center for Public Policy. It featured economists Dave Hebert of Aquinas College and Michael Makovi of Northwood University.
In his review of lockdowns, Hebert used a cost-benefit analysis to estimate the optimal balance between their benefits (fewer cases of illness and fewer fatalities) and their costs, both in economic terms and in personal and societal ones.