Sub-National Allocation of COVID-19 Tests: An Efficiency Criterion with an Application to Italian Regions

18 Pages Posted: 15 Apr 2020 Last revised: 24 Apr 2020

See all articles by Christelle Baunez

Christelle Baunez

Aix-Marseille University - Institut de Neurosciences de la Timone (INT)

Mickael Degoulet

Aix-Marseille University

Stephane Luchini

National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) - Research Group in Quantitative Saving (GREQAM), EHESS

Patrick Pintus

Aix-Marseille University and CNRS

Miriam Teschl

Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (EHESS)

Date Written: April 15, 2020

Abstract

Tests are crucial to know about the number of people who have fallen ill with COVID-19 and to understand in real-time whether the dynamics of the pandemic is accelerating or decelerating. But tests are a scarce resource in many countries. The key but still open question is thus how to allocate tests across sub-national levels. We provide a data-driven and operational criterion to allocate tests efficiently across regions or provinces, with the view to maximize detection of people who have been infected. We apply our criterion to Italian regions and compute the shares of tests that should go to each region, which are shown to differ significantly from the actual distribution.

Keywords: COVID-19, Epidemic Dynamics, Acceleration of Harm, Deceleration of Harm, Real-time Analysis, Sub-National Allocation of Tests, Efficiency Criterion, Italy

JEL Classification: I18, H12

Suggested Citation

Baunez, Christelle and Degoulet, Mickael and Luchini, Stephane and Pintus, Patrick and Teschl, Miriam, Sub-National Allocation of COVID-19 Tests: An Efficiency Criterion with an Application to Italian Regions (April 15, 2020). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3576161 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3576161

Christelle Baunez

Aix-Marseille University - Institut de Neurosciences de la Timone (INT) ( email )

UMR7289 CNRS & AMU (Aix Marseille Université)
France

Mickael Degoulet

Aix-Marseille University ( email )

3 Avenue Robert Schuman
3 Avenue Robert Schuman,
Aix-en-Provence, 13628
France

Stephane Luchini

National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) - Research Group in Quantitative Saving (GREQAM), EHESS ( email )

Centre de la Vieille Charité
2, rue de la Charité
Marseille, 13002
France

Patrick Pintus (Contact Author)

Aix-Marseille University and CNRS ( email )

Ilot Bernard Dubois
5-9 Boulevard Maurice Bourdet
Marseille, 13001
France
0609397281 (Phone)

HOME PAGE: http://https://sites.google.com/site/patrickpintus/

Miriam Teschl

Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (EHESS) ( email )

54, boulevard Raspail
Paris, 75006
France

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