COVID-19

Bengt Holmström “I have been involved in many economic crises, including three major ones in Sweden. But I have never previously experienced such a rapid course of events and so many decisions being taken in such a short space of time.”, said the Governor of the Swedish Riksbank Stefan Ingves in a speech at the […] 

Raghuram Rajan As the coronavirus pandemic seems to accelerate the end of the era of globalisation – and as electorates around the world decry out-of-touch elites – Raghuram Rajan joins CoronaNomics to discuss whether whether the time has come for a wave of radical political devolution. Watch video> 

This is Round 05 of the FiveThirtyEight/IGM COVID-19 Economic Outlook survey. This survey series is overseen by Professors Allan Timmermann and Jonathan Wright. The list of experts answering the questions is identified in the post along with the responses. Individual responses are anonymous. A simple summary of responses of Round 05 appears here on the […] 

Marianne Bertrand et al Wave 3 The latest results from a U.S. household survey reveal that a loss of income due to the pandemic has led many Americans to admit that the #COVID19 is worse than they expected, but that also depends on where people get their news. The results were released today by the […] 

In this respect the idea of the Universal Ultra Base Income (UUBI) is discussed and the positive impact it may have in times of crises such as now. The three Laureates debate how the UUBI may help to stop or decelerate the spreading of COVID-19 in certain areas. Banerjee, Duflo and Kremer also discuss how a UUBI would influence different developing countries and the difference in their infrastructure which makes it harder or easier to distribute a possible UUBI in the rural areas. 

This is Round 04 of the FiveThirtyEight/IGM COVID-19 Economic Outlook survey. This survey series is overseen by Professors Allan Timmermann and Jonathan Wright. The list of experts answering the questions is identified in the post along with the responses. Individual responses are anonymous. A simple summary of responses of Round 04 appears here on the […] 

Angus Deaton Pre-existing inequalities are shaping the course of the pandemic just as the pandemic is creating new inequalities and changing old ones. This is true both within countries—and here I focus mostly on the US, but with some attention to other countries—and between countries, where the pandemic will affect patterns of trade and international […] 

Steven Kaplan, Anil Kashyap, et al As the Covid-19 crisis evolves from a temporary shock into what seems like a long-term catastrophe, six finance scholars from Chicago Booth—Douglas Diamond, Steven Kaplan, Anil Kashyap, Raghuram Rajan, Robert Vishny, and Luigi Zingales—discuss possible policy solutions. Read more> 

Robert Hall and Marianna Kudlyak The global COVID-19 pandemic has led to job loss of catastrophic proportions in the United States. This column looks at recoveries from recessions over past 70 years to assess how the US labour market might recover from this job loss of unprecedented magnitude. Remarkably consistent recoveries have occurred in the […] 

Daron Acemoglu Now that the COVID-19 pandemic has ushered in a steep economic downturn, highly indebted emerging markets and developing countries are facing potentially ruinous fiscal crises, the costs of which will fall on ordinary citizens. Fortunately, there is a way to address the problem that is both practical and just. Read more>