Construction's $3b shutdown cost dwarfs $7.6m benefit - economist

Sun, 19 Apr 2020

Shutting down the construction industry for a month has affected about 250,000 workers and cost about $3 billion but the benefits were likely worth about $7.6 million with only a single life of a person over 70 saved.Moreover, the New Zealand government's decision to lock down all non-essential work places was an over-reaction to the coronavirus crisis and wasn't supported by the evidence.That's the conclusion of economist Ian Harrison, whose specialty is risk modelling and who has worked for the Reserve Bank of New Zealand, the Wor...

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