Without any intervention, the novel coronavirus would cost the U.S. economy over $9 trillion. A suppression policy aims to reduce the number of new cases through strict social distancing measures by closing schools and non-essential businesses. Less restrictive, a mitigation policy aims to...

A cross-country comparison shows similar behavioural adaptations of individuals despite different degrees of stringency of the respective lockdown in place. In Germany, during the first lockdown in spring 2020 mobility fell by 45 percent, while in Sweden it also decreased by 27 percent during...

It is politicians who have to decide when to release the lockdown, and in what way. In doing so, they have to balance many considerations (as with any decision). Often the different considerations appear incommensurable so that only the roughest of judgements can be made. For example, in the...

The COVID-19 pandemic forced governments around the world to make tough political decisions about the cost of saving lives and the limits of doing so. One of the striking aspects of the debates over these necessary tradeoffs is the relatively little weight individual rights seemed to have...

We show that the effectiveness of redistribution policy in stimulating the economy and improving welfare is directly tied to how much inflation it generates, which in turn hinges on monetary-fiscal adjustments that ultimately finance the transfers. We compare two distinct types of...

We show that the effectiveness of redistribution policy is tied to how much inflation it generates, and thereby to monetary‐fiscal adjustments that ultimately finance the transfers. In the monetary regime, taxes increase to finance transfers while in the fiscal regime, inflation rises,...