What is the relationship, if any, between economic freedom and pandemics? This paper addresses this question from a robust political economy approach. As is the case with recovery from natural disasters or warfare, a society that is relatively free economically offers economic actors greater flexibility to adapt to pandemics. We argue that societies that are more economically free will be more robust to the impact from pandemics, illustrated by shorter time for economic recovery. We illustrate this relationship by testing how initial levels of economic freedom (at the start of the major influenza pandemics of the 20th century) temper contractions and accelerate recoveries for 20 OECD countries.

中文翻译：

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经济自由、流行病和强劲的政治经济


经济自由和流行病之间有什么关系（如果有的话）？本文从强有力的政治经济学方法来解决这个问题。与从自然灾害或战争中恢复的情况一样，经济相对自由的社会为经济参与者提供了更大的灵活性来适应流行病。我们认为，经济更加自由的社会将更能抵御流行病的影响，经济复苏的时间较短就说明了这一点。我们通过测试 20 个 OECD 国家的初始经济自由度（在 20 世纪大规模流感大流行开始时）如何缓和经济收缩并加速复苏来说明这种关系。