Riding the waves from epidemic to endemic: Viral mutations, immunological change and policy responses.

Nonpharmaceutical interventions (NPI) are an important tool for countering pandemics such as COVID-19. Some are cheap; others disrupt economic, educational, and social activity. The latter force governments to balance the health benefits of reduced infection and death against broader lockdown-induced societal costs.

The hammer and the jab: Are COVID-19 lockdowns and vaccinations complements or substitutes?

The COVID-19 pandemic has devastated lives and economies around the world. Initially a primary response was locking down parts of the economy to reduce social interactions and, hence, the virus' spread. After vaccines have been developed and produced in sufficient quantity, they can largely replace broad lock downs.

Measuring private transfers between generations and gender: an application of national transfer accounts for Austria 2015.

Few data sources provide information on private transfers between generations and gender. We use a novel approach based on the National Transfer Accounts methodology to estimate the value of intra-family transfers between generations by age, gender and parental status in Austria 2015. The paper considers monetary transfers together with transfers of consumption goods and transfers of services produced by non-market work.

The impact of COVID-19 vaccines on the Case Fatality Rate: The importance of monitoring breakthrough infections.

Objectives: This study aimed to test the behavior of the case fatality rate (CFR) in a mixed population of vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals by illustrating the role of both the effectiveness of vaccines in preventing deaths and the detection of infections among both the vaccinated (breakthrough infections) and unvaccinated individuals.

Methods: We simulated three hypothetical CFR scenarios that resulted from a different combination of vaccine effectiveness in preventing deaths and the efforts in detecting infections among both the vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals.

Results: In the presence of vaccines, the CFR depends not only on the effectiveness of vaccines in preventing deaths but also on the detection of breakthrough infections.

Age-Specific Income Trends in Europe: The Role of Employment, Wages, and Social Transfers.

Unlabelled: This study analyses age-specific differences in income trends in nine European countries. Based on data from National Accounts and the European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions, we quantify age-specific changes in income between 2008 and 2017 and decompose these changes into employment, wages, and public transfer components. Results show that income of the younger age groups stagnated or declined in most countries since 2008, while income of the older population increased.