Clark Center Forum

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> 

An executive order by President Trump in late June has suspended a range of visas for skilled workers. We invited our panel to express their views on the potential impact of the visa ban on US leadership in science and innovation; on the attractiveness of US universities for foreign students; and on the location of […] 

An executive order by President Trump in late June has suspended a range of visas for skilled workers. We invited our panel to express their views on the potential impact of the visa ban on US leadership in science and innovation; on the attractiveness of US universities for foreign students; and on the location of corporate research facilities.

 

This week’s IGM European Economic Experts Panel statements on The Search for a Vaccine



 

This week’s IGM Economic Experts Panel statements on The Search for a Vaccine. 

James J. Stock et al In the early stages of the pandemic, testing targeted individuals whose symptoms and/or jobs placed them at a high presumed risk of infection. This potentially results in a high proportion of cases going undetected. In an update of our April paper, we use public data from two Icelandic testing regimes […] 

This week’s IGM European Economic Experts Panel statements:

 

A) Given the social and regulatory pressures to keep prices down for drugs and vaccines to treat Covid-19, the financial incentives for pharmaceutical companies to invest in such products are below the value of the investment to society.

B) Government commitments to pay developers and manufacturers above average costs for an effective vaccine or drug treatments for Covid-19 would accelerate production.

C) Given the positive externalities from vaccination, an effective Covid-19 vaccine should have priority in public healthcare funding even in countries where other diseases cause more death and disability.