COVID-19

Gary Becker Eleven years ago, in March 2009, Nobel laureate Gary Becker wrote a blog post about the economic costs of a pandemic equal in severity to the Great Pandemic of 1918-19. He calculated that if the same percentage of the population were to die from such a pandemic in all countries, the total cost […] 

Matthias Doepke and Fabrizio Zilibotti The disruption of schooling during the pandemic will have disparate effects across the socio-economic ladder. The achievement gap between children from poorer and richer families is bound to rise as long as school closures continue. Fortunately, there is still time to take action and push back against the repercussions of […] 

Paul De Grauwe Having witnessed the 2008 financial crisis and the subsequent eurozone debt crisis, Europe’s policymakers should already realize what the COVID-19 pandemic could mean for the economy. To avert a self-perpetuating downward spiral, the European Central Bank, in particular, will need to start thinking outside the box. Read more> 

Lucrezia Reichlin and Dirk Schoenmaker Fiscal and monetary policy coordination is not working in the euro area. This column argues that in order to rebalance the weight of both during major crises, the asymmetry between decision making at the ECB (by majority voting) and the ESM (by unanimity or qualified majority) must be harmonised. This […] 

SUBSCRIPTION REQUIRED Beata Javorcik Even if we are able to fight the coronavirus pandemic into submission, its effects are likely to spark nothing less than a rethink of how the world does business.Businesses will be forced to rethink their global value chains, shaped to maximise efficiency and profits. Read more> 

Eric Budish This note suggests that we view R < 1 as an economic constraint, allowing social welfare in the traditional sense (economic activity, societal well-being) to be the policy objective. This formulation highlights two key questions at the intersection of health and economics research in response to the Covid-19 crisis. First, what activities maximize […] 

Jonathan Dingel and Brent Neiman Evaluating the economic impact of “social distancing” measures taken to arrest the spread of COVID-19 raises a number of fundamental questions about the modern economy: How many jobs can be performed at home? What share of total wages are paid to such jobs? How does the scope for working from […] 

Alberto Alesina and Francesco Giavazzi The virus will increase tensions between the thrifty North and the looser South; it may also offer an opportunity to take the EU to a higher level. Read more> 

Raghuram Rajan As the world’s most advanced economies buckle under the strain of the coronavirus pandemic, Chicago Booth’s Raghuram G. Rajan looks ahead to how those in emerging markets will cope with the virus if they begin to experience greater numbers of cases. Watch video> 

Neale Mahoney Over the coming weeks, we will see many policy arguments, and often they will be couched in the language of economic trade-offs. While there are real economic trade-offs, and economists should participate in debates about them, we should also be on the lookout for politicians dressing up bad ideas in such language—and call […]