The European debt crisis gave rise to policies of fiscal austerity designed to instill discipline and return economies to growth after a short-lived period of structural adjustment. Greece received several bailouts conditional on implementing severe spending cuts and structural reforms. These...

Countries have adopted several measures to control the spread of Covid-19. However, substantial differences remain in terms of performance in controlling the virus, potentially due to heterogeneity in citizen engagement with government measures. Drawing on this observation, this paper seeks to...

Democracies reacted slower than autocracies to the specter of the pandemic, and the most solidly democratic among them were particularly slow to react. We examine at which stages of the spread of the COVID governments introduced four measures that to varying degree abrogate liberal rights:...

We uncover a striking relationship between the 2016 Brexit vote and COVID-19 death, infection, and vaccination rates in England. Districts that voted most heavily in favor of remaining in the European Union (top quintile) have a one-third lower death rate, a quarter lower infection rate, and a...

While degraded trust and cohesion within a country are often shown to have large socioeconomic impacts, they can also have dramatic consequences when compliance is required for collective survival. We illustrate this point in the context of the COVID-19 crisis. Policy responses all over the...

We analyze consumer sentiment with a novel survey of Thai and Vietnamese consumers conducted in May 2020, that is, shortly after the end of the immediate lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In a randomized control trial, we expose subgroups of the survey respondents to four different...

Globalisation has made many issues and challenges unsolvable by an effort of a single sovereign state (hereinafter referred to as ‘state’). States must work with others and establish global rules and regulations to address them. Growing international organisations and international laws,...

This paper uses the COVID-19 pandemic as a case study to investigate the direct and indirect effect of beliefs of others on respondent's own beliefs and on their individual consumer sentiment. In a new online consumer survey with randomized control trials (RCTs) in Thailand and Vietnam, we...

After an initial policy emphasis on stabilizing jobs and income through job retention and various types of income support measures, more subsequent country responses to the economic shock generated by the COVID-19 pandemic also include policies to support labour market (re-)entry. This policy...

This policy brief provides an update on job retention policies in a sample of 20 countries representing the main world regions as well as the diverse types of job retention schemes, in particular short-time work, furlough and wage subsidy schemes as they have been implemented in response to the...