International Policy Externalities in the Pandemic

The spread of Covid-19 across borders has posed major challenges to policymakers worldwide. The pandemic responses have also highlighted the interdependencies between nations. National pandemic response actions have significant impacts on other countries – through disruption of supply chains, restriction of personal mobility and even the breeding of mutations. Due to externalities and coordination problems, national policies are typically suboptimal in a global pandemic. We discuss a number of externalities and coordination issues that arise in pandemic response.