US Economic Experts Panel

 

 

This week's US Economic Experts Panel statements:

A) Bans on the short selling of financial securities, such as stocks and government bonds, would lead to prices that are further, on average, from their fundamental values.

B) Requiring investors to disclose short positions in a stock at the equivalent threshold as they are required to do for long positions would improve the accuracy of stock prices. 

With Congress working on a $1.9 trillion Covid-19 relief package, potentially including an additional $1,400 in direct payments to individuals, we invited our US panel to express their views on the proposals. We asked the experts whether they agree or disagree with the following statements, and, if so, how strongly and with what degree of confidence:

 

This week's US Economic Experts Panel statements:

A) A federal minimum wage of $15 per hour would lower employment for low-wage workers in many states.

B) A federal minimum wage that is pegged to state and/or local conditions such as the cost of living would be preferable to the current arrangements that give states a role in setting the policy.  

The UK’s exit from the European Union (EU) was finally completed on 1 January 2021, nearly five years after the Brexit referendum of 2016. We invited both our European and US panels to express their views on the likely long-term effects on both the UK economy and the aggregate economy of the remaining 27 EU members. We asked the experts whether they agreed or disagreed with the following statements, and, if so, how strongly and with what degree of confidence:

 

The US Federal Trade Commission and 46 states have brought antitrust cases against Facebook, which could potentially require the company to unwind its acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp. We invited both our US and European panels to express their views on this issue by asking the experts whether they agree or disagree with the following statement, and, if so, how strongly and with what degree of confidence:

 

Edward Lazear passed away in November 2020 at the age of 72, mourned by many in the worlds of economic research and policy-making. Described by two close colleagues and co-authors at Stanford as ‘the first personnel economist’, he was also a founding member of IGM’s US panel and an important contributor to launching our project of polling economics experts on vital policy issues.

 

The total value of outstanding student loans in the United States currently stands at over $1.6 trillion. During the coronavirus crisis, federal student loan payments have been suspended to the end of the calendar year. Following the presidential election, there have been wider discussions of whether the incoming administration may consider some level of forgiveness of the debt.

 

In October, the US Department of Justice launched a federal antitrust lawsuit against Google, accusing the technology giant of abusing its dominance in the market for internet search. We invited both our US and European panels to express their views on some of the issues surrounding this case. We asked the experts whether they agreed or disagreed with the following statements, and, if so, how strongly and with what degree of confidence: