Economic Impacts of an Epidemiologic Model: The Senegalese Case of COVID-19 in a Computable General Equilibrium-Multi-Agent System Model

Senegal is a developing country in West Africa whose current economic crisis is intimately linked to the COVID-19 pandemic. Necessary containment measures brought with them a significant economic cost, and de-confinement was designed to obtain a quick economic recovery. At the same time, de-confinement was accompanied by new protectives to activity (physical distancing, limitations on internet activities, etc.). A lockdown implies a trade off in terms of economic and health impacts. Using a multi-agent model elaborated as an epidemiological model, we evaluate the effect of government policies to counter the COVID-19 pandemic and then use a Computable General Equilibrium model to evaluate the economic impacts of those policies. Those two models are combined in a top-down approach. Finally, we discuss the possibilities offered by a variety of scenarios when a pandemic appears in the economy.