Starting business meetings with a handshake, laughing with friends in a bustling restaurant, or squeezing onto a crowded commuter train: Before the coronavirus pandemic, these were the completely unremarkable events of everyday life. But in the absence of an effective vaccine or test-and-trace system, these activities now carry deadly risks. Naturally, individuals, businesses, and governments have taken dramatic actions to reduce the number of social interactions to prevent the spread of COVID-19 and a deepening of the pandemic.
Reducing social contact to slow the spread of the virus has had a major impact on the U.S. economy, but not all businesses have been equally affected. Some companies provide better trade-offs. Those offering more social and economic importance per social interaction that poses potential risks face less government regulation and a smaller reduction in visits from fearful customers. Governments, businesses, and individuals should seek to maximize the bang for their buck from social interactions. And organizations that can boost their value-risk trade-offs are even in a position to benefit from the crisis.
In our recent research paper, “Rationing Social Contact During the COVID-19 Pandemic,” published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, we measured the value-risk proposition offered by 26 different location types throughout the U.S. Locations we considered are generally for-profit (such as different types of retailers, entertainment venues, and service providers), but we also looked into the trade-offs offered by some nonprofit organizations.