[go: up one dir, main page]
IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ces/ceswps/_8314.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The Socio-Economics of Pandemics Policy

Author

Listed:
  • Dennis J. Snower
Abstract
In response to the Covid-19 pandemic, governments around the world have provided a massive fiscal and monetary stimulus. While this policy is welcome in the short run, it does not address the underlying problem in the medium and long run. The reason is that the pandemic has not given rise to a generalized shortfall in aggregate demand. Rather, it has generated a Great Economic Mismatch, characterized by deficient demand for things requiring close physical interactions among people and deficient supply of things compatible with social distancing, where appropriate. Expansive macroeconomic policy can stimulate aggregate demand, but when social distancing is enforced, it will not stimulate production and consumption whenever this demand is satisfied through physically interactive activities. To overcome the Great Economic Mismatch, “readaptation policies” are called for. In the medium run, these policies promote a redirection of resources to activities compatible with social distancing; the long run, these policies make economies more resilient to unforeseen shocks that generate a Great Economic Mismatch. Once the pandemic is over, a more profound rethinking of decision making - in public policy, business and civil society - is called for. First, decision makers will need to supplement the current focus on economic efficiency by greater emphasis on economic resilience. Second, economic policies and business strategies will need to focus less on incentives for selfish individuals and more on the mobilization of people’s prosocial motives. Finally, to encourage people around the world to cooperate globally in tackling global problems, policy makers at local, national and global levels will need to encourage people around the world to cooperate globally in tackling global problems, with the aid of two powerful tools that humans throughout history have used to coordinate their efforts: identity-shaping narratives and institutions of multi-level governance.

Suggested Citation

  • Dennis J. Snower, 2020. "The Socio-Economics of Pandemics Policy," CESifo Working Paper Series 8314, CESifo.
    • Handle: RePEc:ces:ceswps:_8314
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.cesifo.org/DocDL/cesifo1_wp8314.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. , & Lima de Miranda, Katharina, 2020. "Recoupling Economic and Social Prosperity," CEPR Discussion Papers 14421, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    2. Wilson, David Sloan & Ostrom, Elinor & Cox, Michael E., 2013. "Generalizing the core design principles for the efficacy of groups," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 90(S), pages 21-32.
    3. Snower, Dennis J, 1994. "Converting Unemployment Benefits into Employment Subsidies," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 84(2), pages 65-70, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Jan Krzysztof Solarz & Krzysztof Waliszewski, 2020. "Holistic Framework for COVID-19 Pandemic as Systemic Risk," European Research Studies Journal, European Research Studies Journal, vol. 0(Special 2), pages 340-351.
    2. Peter A.G. van Bergeijk, 2021. "Pandemic Economics," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 20401.
    3. Santiago Lago-Peñas & Jorge Martinez-Vazquez & Agnese Sacchi, 2022. "Country performance during the Covid-19 pandemic: externalities, coordination, and the role of institutions," Economics of Governance, Springer, vol. 23(1), pages 17-31, March.
    4. Katharina Lima de Miranda & Dennis J. Snower, 2022. "The societal responses to COVID-19: Evidence from the G7 countries," Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, vol. 119(25), pages 2117155119-, June.
    5. Arsena Gjipali & Valbona Karapici & Nevila Baci, 2023. "How Do the Labour Force Characteristics Encounter COVID-19 Economic Consequences—A Canadian Experience," Administrative Sciences, MDPI, vol. 13(9), pages 1-13, September.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. ,, 2020. "The Socio-Economics of Pandemics Policy," CEPR Discussion Papers 14872, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    2. Snower, Dennis J., 2020. "The Socio-Economics of Pandemics Policy," IZA Policy Papers 162, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    3. Brown, Alessio J.G. & Merkl, Christian & Snower, Dennis J., 2011. "Comparing the effectiveness of employment subsidies," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 18(2), pages 168-179, April.
    4. Angelsen, Arild & Naime, Julia, 2024. "The mixed impacts of peer punishments on common-pool resources: Multi-country experimental evidence," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 181(C).
    5. Dennis J. Snower & Alessio J. G. Brown & Christian Merkl, 2009. "Globalization and the Welfare State: A Review of Hans-Werner Sinn's Can Germany Be Saved?," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 47(1), pages 136-158, March.
    6. Araceli Martin-Candilejo & Francisco J. Martin-Carrasco & Ana Iglesias & Luis Garrote, 2023. "Heading into the Unknown? Exploring Sustainable Drought Management in the Mediterranean Region," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(1), pages 1-18, December.
    7. Girma, Sourafel & Görg, Holger & Strobl, Eric & Walsh, Frank, 2008. "Creating jobs through public subsidies: An empirical analysis," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 15(6), pages 1179-1199, December.
    8. Klodt, Henning, 1996. "West-Ost-Transfers und Strukturprobleme in den neuen Ländern," Open Access Publications from Kiel Institute for the World Economy 1677, Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel).
    9. Snower, Dennis J., 1997. "Challenges to social cohesion and approaches to policy reform," Open Access Publications from Kiel Institute for the World Economy 1953, Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel).
    10. Yoshihiro Tomaru & Masayuki Saito, 2010. "Mixed Duopoly, Privatization And Subsidization In An Endogenous Timing Framework," Manchester School, University of Manchester, vol. 78(1), pages 41-59, January.
    11. Adriana Kugler & Juan F. Jimeno & Virginia Hernanz, "undated". "Employment Consequences of Restrictive Permanent Contracts: Evidence from Spanish Labor Market Reforms," Working Papers 2003-14, FEDEA.
    12. Gowdy, John & Krall, Lisi, 2013. "The ultrasocial origin of the Anthropocene," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 95(C), pages 137-147.
    13. Roland de Bruijn, 2006. "Scale Economies and Imperfect Competition in WorldScan," CPB Memorandum 140.rdf, CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis.
    14. Benjamin Heslop & Kylie Bailey & Jonathan Paul & Elizabeth Stojanovski, 2018. "The PILAR Model as a Measure of Peer Ratings of Collaboration Viability in Small Groups," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 7(3), pages 1-14, March.
    15. Sergi Jiménez-Martín & Arnau Juanmarti Mestres & Judit Vall Castello, 2017. "Hiring subsidies for people with disabilities: Do they work?," Policy Papers 2017-11, FEDEA.
    16. Adriano Paggiaro & Enrico Rettore & Ugo Trivellato, 2009. "The Effect of a Longer Eligibility to a Labour Market Programme for Dismissed Workers," LABOUR, CEIS, vol. 23(1), pages 37-66, March.
    17. Orszag, J. Michael & Snower, Dennis J., 2002. "Incapacity benefits and employment policy," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 9(5), pages 631-641, November.
    18. Herbertsson, Tryggvi Thor & Orszag, Mike, 2003. "The Early Retirement Burden: Assessing the Costs of the Continued Prevalence of Early Retirement in OECD Countries," IZA Discussion Papers 816, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    19. Salter, Alexander William & Tarko, Vlad, 2017. "Polycentric banking and macroeconomic stability," Business and Politics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 19(2), pages 365-395, June.
    20. Benjamin Schünemann & Michael Lechner & Conny Wunsch, 2015. "Do Long-Term Unemployed Workers Benefit from Targeted Wage Subsidies?," German Economic Review, Verein für Socialpolitik, vol. 16(1), pages 43-64, February.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ces:ceswps:_8314. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Klaus Wohlrabe (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/cesifde.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.