COVID-19

What Do Recoveries From Past US Recessions Teach US About the Recovery From the Pandemic Recession?

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 […] 
Miscellaneous

New Visa Ban

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 […] 
US

New Visa Ban

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.

 
COVID-19

Identification and Estimation of Undetected COVID-19 Cases Using Testing Data from Iceland

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 […] 
Europe

The Search for a Vaccine

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.

  
US

The Search for a Vaccine

This week’s IGM 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 be mandatory for every US resident (except those with health exceptions, such as infants and people with compromised immunity) with the cost covered by the federal government.