Economic Impact of Biological Incidents: A Literature Review

Abstract

According to the European Union’s point of view, no public authority can afford to ignore chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, and explosive (CBRNe) threat given its potentially very significant consequences in terms of human life and economic effects. EU carried out investigation activities aiming to the implementation of biological actions like the adoption of risk management standards, the codes of conduct in bio issues for laboratories, and the funding of research projects on biosecurity activities. Since CBRNe incidents and specifically biological events can be profiled through methodological approaches, this paper has the purpose to review the literature production on that field. In the paper, we analyzed different approaches passing through Kaufmann et al., who first modeled economic analyses of a theoretical biological postattack of biological warfare, to Enders and Sandler, who examined the consequence scenarios for biological attacks. Moreover, from Ramseger et al., with his methodology to assess the economic impact of the CBRNe threats, and finally to Cavallini et al., who tried to build an impact profile of this kind of incidents to support the policymakers’ strategic decisions after the events, the paper has the intent to seek the limits and the possible future scenarios of these literature aiming to refine the impact profiling of the biological events and study the related economic costs.