EGC affiliates respond to the crisis

Yale SOM’s Mushfiq Mobarak writes that for rich countries, there was always only one right answer: Impose strict early lockdowns to crush the virus and enable a return to economic growth.

Gender disparities in social and economic outcomes, already larger in the developing world than in rich countries, have been exacerbated by the pandemic, according to Yale SOM’s Mushfiq Mobarak and his co-authors. They write that policy action is badly needed to address the compounding of existing inequalities and protect the most vulnerable women.

Without a greater focus on the gender dynamics of the COVID-19 crisis, women and girls will suffer long-term handicaps that constrain their economic prospects for years to come, if not permanently, notes Pinelopi Koujianou Goldberg.

In the developing world, many of those most at risk from the economic effects of COVID-19 are beyond the reach of aid programs. Yale SOM’s Kevin Donovan, a development economist, is studying whether mobile cash transfers can make a difference for residents of Dandora, Kenya, a slum on the outskirts of Nairobi.

The former chief economist at the World Bank Group is now studying policy responses to the crisis in and collaborating with EGC colleagues to collect data on COVID-19’s effects on low-income populations.

Tracking food prices, spotting shortages, and surveying returning migrants on experiences accessing benefits: Rohini Pande of EGC and Charity Troyer Moore of Yale MacMillan Center describe their work in India and Nepal assisting governments in addressing the COVID-19 crisis.

What are the policy options when info channels are weak and the cost of social distancing may be going hungry? In an interview, Mushfiq Mobarak explores the role of research and policy in Bangladesh and other developing countries.

When countries went into nationwide Covid-19 lockdowns, migrant workers returned home in droves. Now as migrants return to work, they face difficulties reintegrating into the local economy and stigmas of carrying the disease, writes Ahmed Mushfiq Mobarak.

Town criers, plumbing-free handwashing stations, and other low-cost measures to reduce the spread of coronavirus: Sierra Leone's policies based on Ebola may work in other developing countries, writes Niccoló F. Meriggi and Ahmed Mushfiq Mobarak.

Prolonged lockdowns will exacerbate food and income insecurity during the agricultural lean season, writes Ahmed Mushfiq Mobarak.

The COVID-19 crisis offers powerful evidence, not in favor of protectionism, but of why we need global supply chains and widely distributed production, writes Penny Goldberg.

The Government of India should expand use of food distribution systems to assist with COVID-19 relief, as a large percentage of poor women lack access to digital bank transfers and ration cards. Rohini Pande, Charity Troyer Moore, and Simone Schaner explain their findings.

Economists can address the pandemic by collecting data, developing models that combine epidemiological and economic insights, informing implementation with existing research, and testing disease-prevention interventions, say Yale's Mushfiq Mobarak and Northwestern's Jaya Wen.

Policies imposed in rich countries to fight the coronavirus could have adverse effects in low-income nations, potentially endangering more lives than they save, say Mushfiq Mobarak and Zachary Barnett-Howell.

Penny Goldberg's chapter in the eBook "Mitigating the COVID Economic Crisis: Act Fast and Do Whatever It Takes", edited by Richard Baldwin and Beatrice Weder di Mauro, available as a free download.

A champion in the fight against COVID-19 is data-driven technology enabling governments to track the infected, contact them, and quarantine them early, says Penny Goldberg.