There are two phases needed in the response to help developing countries during the Covid-9 pandemic, the first is the need to get money into the hands of these countries, the second is the need for a more durable debt restructuring. Although China has joined with the other G20 countries in calling for a debt standstill, whether it will participate as a member of a coordinated form of that restructuring is an as-yet unresolved issue. Lee Buchheit (University of Edinburgh Law School) was speaking at CEPR / LSE IGA / SPP webinar on: Born Out of Necessity: A Debt Standstill for COVID-19, 7 May 2020.
Video Vox
Patrick Bolton 21 May 2020
Getting a debt relief organised without credit ratings downgrades is like making an omelette without breaking any eggs, says Patrick Bolton (Columbia Business School & CEPR). Even without a debt standstill, rating downgrades are to be expected, so they should not be a deciding factor in negotiations. Recorded during a CEPR / LSE IGA / SPP webinar on: Born Out of Necessity: A Debt Standstill for COVID-19, 7 May 2020
Carlo Favero, Franceso Figari 19 May 2020
Why was the mortality rate from Covid-19 so high in some regions of Italy, and how will the Italian welfare system compensate those who have survived the pandemic but lost their income.
Stephanie Schmitt-Grohe 16 May 2020
In New York City, coronavirus tests, contrary to some public perception, were actually administered more evenly across the population than income is. However, since tests were more likely to come back positive from areas with lower average income, targeting a higher proportion of tests at these areas will give a more accurate picture of incidence. Stephanie Schmitt-Grohé, Columbia University
Stephanie Schmitt-Grohe 16 May 2020
Stephanie Schmitt-Grohé and coauthors found that access to tests for coronavirus in New York City was surprisingly egalitarian: testing distribution was a good match for income distribution across the city.
Simon Evenett 13 May 2020
Taken from CEPR / LSE IGA / SPP webinar on: Covid-19: Keeping Trade Routes Open. 30 April 2020.
How long will the current Covid-led liberalisation of trade regimes towards medical products last and are their ways of encouraging countries to maintain them? Simon Evenett (University of St. Gallen and CEPR)
Swati Dhingra 13 May 2020
Taken from a CEPR / LSE IGA / SPP webinar on: Covid-19: Keeping Trade Routes Open. 30 April 2020 Although there is likely to be some move towards protectionism and domestic policies in trade, some sectors, such as services and digital and data flows are still very much multi-national affairs.
Simon Evenett 30 April 2020
Simon Evenett is co-editor of and contributor to the new Vox book COVID-19 and Trade Policy: Why Turning Inward Won't Work. Can individual countries be persuaded that if global trade standards work for them during the pandemic then there is no need to revert back to national regulations?
Richard Baldwin, Simon Evenett 30 April 2020
Richard Baldwin and Simon Evenett talk to Tim Phillips about the new Vox eBook, 'COVID-19 and Trade Policy: Why Turning Inward Won’t Work', and explain that national trade barriers in a world of internationalised manufacturing processes will make it harder for every nation to produce vital medical supplies. Insular policies will also fail to foster economic recovery, and they are a threat to the collaborative spirit that the human race will need to defeat this threat.
Richard Baldwin 29 April 2020
The key items for overcoming Covid-19, such as PPE, vaccines and antibody tests, are all the product of 'global factories'. Richard Baldwin explains that the notion that export bans could result in more being available just doesn't make sense.