Brookings Papers on Economic Activity: Summer 2020

Brookings Papers on Economic Activity provides academic and business economists, government officials, and members of the financial and business communities with timely research on current economic issues.

Contents:

Session One: Labor Markets and Consumer Spending

The US Labor Market during the Beginning of the Pandemic Recession,
Tomaz Cajner, Leland D. Crane, Ryan A. Decker, John Grigsby, Adrian Hamins-Puertolas, Erik Hurst, Christopher Kurz, and Ahu Yildirmaz

Initial Impacts of the Pandemic on Consumer Behavior: Evidence from Linked Income, Spending, and Savings Data,
Natalie Cox, Peter Ganong, Pascal Noel, Joseph Vavra, Arlene Wong, Diana Farrell, Fiona Greig, and Erica Deadman

Session Two: Safety Net Programs and Poverty

Income and Poverty in the COVID-19 Pandemic,
Jeehoon Han, Bruce D. Meyer, and James X. Sullivan

The Social Safety Net in the Wake of COVID-19,
Marianne P. Bitler, Hilary W. Hoynes, and Diane Whitmore Schanzenbach

Session Three: Emerging Market and Developing Economies

The Effects of the Coronavirus Pandemic in Emerging Market and Developing Economies: An Optimistic Preliminary Account,
Pinelopi Koujianou Goldberg and Tristan Reed

Session Four: Labor Markets and the Economics of Non-pharmaceutical Interventions

Measuring the Labor Market at the Onset of the COVID-19 Crisis,
Alexander W. Bartik, Marianne Bertrand, Feng Lin, Jesse Rothstein, and Matthew Unrath

Mandated and Voluntary Social Distancing during the COVID-19 Epidemic,
Sumedha Gupta, Kosali Simon, and Coady Wing

Session Five: Macroeconomics and Epidemiology

COVID-19 Is Also a Reallocation Shock,
Jose Maria Barrero, Nicholas Bloom and Steven J. Davis

Policies for a Second Wave,
David Baqaee, Emmanuel Farhi, Michael Mina, and James H. Stock

Session Six: Federal Reserve Programs

Corporate Debt Overhang and Credit Policy,
Markus Brunnermeier and Arvind Krishnamurthy