Skip to main content
Past Event

Webinar – Special edition BPEA 2020: COVID-19 and the economy

Past Event

Session one: Labor markets and consumer spending

Session one: Labor markets and consumer spending
Play Video
Now Playing

Session one: Labor markets and consumer spending

Session two: Safety net programs and poverty
Play Video
Now Playing

Session two: Safety net programs and poverty

Session three: Emerging markets and developing economies
Play Video
Now Playing

Session three: Emerging markets and developing economies

Session four: Labor markets and the economics of non-pharmaceutical interventions
Play Video
Now Playing

Session four: Labor markets and the economics of non-pharmaceutical interventions

Session five: Macroeconomics and epidemiology
Play Video
Now Playing

Session five: Macroeconomics and epidemiology

The Brookings Papers on Economic Activity (BPEA) is a semi-annual academic conference and journal that pairs rigorous research with real-time policy analysis to address the most urgent economic challenges of the day. This year, we are adding a special third edition of reports and papers on COVID-19’s current and future impact on the economy. How will labor markets and consumer spending respond in the coming year? What influence should epidemiology have on macroeconomics? Are current safety net programs enough to solve poverty, or merely stem poverty? Are emerging markets in developing economies endangered or emboldened by a global economic crisis? How well have Federal Reserve programs worked throughout this crisis?

On June 25 Brookings held its semi-annual academic conference to discuss new research on COVID-19’s current and future impact on the economy. While BPEA conferences are usually small, invitation-only gatherings, Brookings is opening its proceedings this month to anyone who wishes to observe the vanguard of economic thought around urgent public health and the global economic issues.

Download the conference agenda here.

Submit a proposal to future BPEA conferences here.

Agenda

Session one: Labor markets and consumer spending

  • “The U.S. labor market during the beginning of the pandemic recession”
    Authors: Tomaz Cajner, Federal Reserve Board; Leland D. Crane, Federal Reserve Board; Ryan A.
    Decker, Federal Reserve Board; John Grigsby, Northwestern University; Adrian Hamins-Puertolas,
    Federal Reserve Board; Erik Hurst, University of Chicago; Christopher Kurz, Federal Reserve Board;
    and Ahu Yildirmaz, Automatic Data Processing, Inc.
  • “Initial impacts of the pandemic on consumer behavior: Evidence from linked income, spending, and savings data”
    Authors: Natalie Cox, Princeton University; Peter Ganong, University of Chicago; Pascal
    Noel, University of Chicago; Joseph Vavra, University of Chicago; Arlene Wong, Princeton University;
    Diana Farrell, JPMorgan Chase Institute; Fiona Greig, JPMorgan Chase Institute; Erica Deadman, JPMorgan Chase Institute

Session two: Safety net programs and poverty

  • “Income and poverty in the COVID-19 pandemic”
    Authors: Jeehoon Han, University of Chicago; Bruce D. Meyer, University of Chicago; and James X.
    Sullivan, University of Notre Dame
  • “The social safety net in the wake of COVID-19”
    Authors: Marianne Bitler, University of California, Davis; Hilary Hoynes, University of California,
    Berkeley; and Diane Schanzenbach, Northwestern University

Session three: Emerging markets and developing economies

“The effects of the coronavirus pandemic in emerging markets and developing economies: An optimistic preliminary account”

Paper Author

Tristan Reed

Economist - Development Research Group, World Bank

Discussant

Michael Kremer

Gates Professor of Developing Societies - Department of Economics at Harvard University

Session four: Labor markets and the economics of non-pharmaceutical interventions

  • “Measuring the labor market at the onset of the COVID-19 crisis” 
    Authors: Alexander W. Bartik, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign; Marianne Bertrand, University
    of Chicago; Feng Lin, University of Chicago; Jesse Rothstein, University of California, Berkeley; and
    Matthew Unrath, University of California, Berkeley
  • “Mandated and voluntary social distancing during the COVID-19 epidemic” 
    Authors: Sumedha Gupta, Indiana University; Kosali I. Simon, Indiana University; and Coady Wing, Indiana University
Discussant

Caroline Buckee

Associate Professor of Epidemiology, T. H. Chan School of Public Health - Harvard University

Session five: Macroeconomics and epidemiology

  • “COVID-19 is also a reallocation shock”
    Authors: Jose Maria Barrero, Instituto Tecnologico Autonomo de Mexico; Nick Bloom,
    Stanford University; and Steven J. Davis, University of Chicago
  • “Policies for a second wave”
    Authors: David Baqaee, University of California, Los Angeles; Emmanuel Farhi, Harvard University;
    Michael J. Mina, Harvard University; and James H. Stock, Harvard University

Session Six: Fed programs

“Corporate debt overhang and credit policy” 

Paper Author

Markus Brunnermeier

Edwards S. Sanford Professor of Economics - Princeton University

Paper Author

Arvind Krishnamurthy

John S. Osterweis Professor of Finance - Stanford Graduate School of Business

Senior Fellow - Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research

More Information

To subscribe or manage your subscriptions to our top event topic lists, please visit our event topics page.

More

Get a weekly events calendar from Brookings