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α: calibrated so average coauthorship-adjusted count equals average raw count
Abstract I study the social regulation of disease in a search-theoretic economy where health is uncertain and imperfectly observed, and exchange carries the risk of contagion. Traders confront a signal-extraction problem and the equilibrium features a “better safe than sorry” strategy where disease and fear of contagion trigger false alarms, limit the extent of the market, and foster social exclusion. Society’s tolerance toward a disease depends on its danger and visibility. Using these characteristics, I interpret the regulation of the major epidemics in the West (leprosy, plague, smallpox, and cholera) to illustrate how societal anxieties surrounding epidemics fueled prejudice and exclusion.