Lockdowns, economic contraction and public investment in treatment capacity: Views of leading economists

With severe lockdowns in place across much of the world to counter the spread of the coronavirus, the IGM Forum at Chicago Booth invited its panel of leading US economists to express their views on interactions between containment measures and economic activity, and the need for public investment to support the medical response to the health emergency. This column reveals a strong consensus among the experts that abandoning lockdowns prematurely will cause greater economic damage in the longer term. There is also unanimity on the need for more US government spending on expanding treatment capacity: building temporary hospitals, accelerating testing, making more masks and ventilators, and providing financial incentives for the production of a successful vaccine.

Πηγή: Voxeu

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