COVID-19 Thought Leadership Digest: May 13, 2020

Today, Booth hosted our third and final virtual Economic Outlook event, where our faculty offered insight on COVID-19's impact on the EMEA region. If you missed the first event, focusing on North America, you can visit Booth Stories to get key takeaways, as well as view video from our recent Economic Outlook event in Asia. Video from our Europe event will be coming soon.  

COVID-19 Research and Insights from Chicago Booth Review

How the Fed plans to pay the country's bills
John H. Cochrane analyzes the Federal Reserve's reaction to the COVID-19 crisis and how policies might be set up better in the future.

Video: How the crisis could prompt innovation
According to professor Haresh Sapra, the COVID-19 crisis is an opportunity for businesses to step back and consider long-term investments.

Video: Why poor countries need a debt moratorium
The COVID-19 pandemic leaves poor countries caught between paying their debts and providing urgently needed health care, says professor Chang-Tai Hsieh.

Video: Rethinking unemployment insurance in response to the crisis
Booth's Randall S. Kroszner suggests a way to help the unemployed transition to new jobs.

Business shutdowns hurt those just above the poverty line
Mining the Nielsen Datasets from the Kilts Center, researchers find that households with lower-middle-class incomes are especially prone to choppy consumption.

Producers may contribute to the economic contagion from COVID-19
Economic distress in one area affects what companies sell elsewhere, suggests a new study leveraging the Nielsen Datasets at Kilts.

Follow CBR's newly redesigned COVID-19 page and social channels to stay current.

Select Thought Leadership in the Media

Business cannot simply awake from this coma and carry on
May 12 | Financial Times
As the economy reopens, professor Raghuram G. Rajan says many companies will have to change what they do and how they do it, while others will no longer be viable.

Paycheck Protection Program goes from popular to pariah
May 11 | CBS News
The volume of loans approved through the Paycheck Protection Program dropped 84% last week. Booth's Michael Minnis said demand for PPP loans may have peaked.

Becoming 'King of Ventilators' may result in unexpected glut
May 10 | Associated Press
Booth's Dan Adelman said the US government is now buying more than twice the number of ventilators it needs, even under a worst-case scenario.

Five experts explain what April's historic job loss means for markets and economy
May 8 | CNBC Squawk Box
Professor Austan D. Goolsbee shares his initial reaction to the April jobs report and compares unemployment numbers to the Great Depression's.

COVID hits job market harder than any recent recession
May 8| Crain's Chicago Business
Amid the pandemic, the American labor market has deteriorated faster and on a grander scale than in any recent recession, according to a new study coauthored by Booth's Erik Hurst.

To stay up-to-date with media mentions, follow Booth's In the News page and social channels.

COVID-19 Content Across Booth

COVID-19 and the global economic outlook
Read takeaways from the first virtual Economic Outlook. Randall S. Kroszner, Austan D. Goolsbee, and Raghuram G. Rajan offered insights on rising debt, policy responses, and more.

Finding a new strength: A Booth graduate's road to reopening her restaurant
Karen Jesso, '89, felt worried for the future when her restaurant was forced to close amid the pandemic. Learn how she came to see the situation as a valuable learning experience.

Pandemic Economics: Policy gambles?
On the latest episode of BFI's podcast, Booth's Eric Zwick takes a closer look at PPP lending to small businesses under the CARES Act and how many of these loans missed the target.

BFI working paper: Controlling epidemic spread: Reducing economic losses with targeted closures
In a new study, Booth's John R. Birge and coauthors find that targeted closures can acheive the same reductions in the epidemic spread as uniform city-wide closure policies.

BFI working paper: The US labor market during the beginning of the pandemic recession
Booth's Erik Hurst and coauthors find that the speed and magnitude of labor market deterioration during the early months of the pandemic are unprecedented in the postwar period.

Upcoming Webinars

Capital and ideology: Inequality, COVID-19 and beyond
Monday, May 18, Noon
Join the Stigler Center for a conversation with professor Robert H. Topel and other experts on the impact of the COVID-19 crisis on capitalism.