POLICY BRIEFS

S20 Saudi Arabia Communique

S20 Saudi Arabia 2020: Read the Communique here.

Evolution of G20 Process: From Crisis Management to Development Cooperation

With two decades of functioning, the G20 Process seems to be maturing with a much wider scope of engagement among the member states. The G20 Summit Agenda has diversified from a finance focus to hard-core development issues. While it is being viewed as a welcome step by the global community from the perspective of an alternative forum for deliberations on common issues affecting the world, there is suspicion over the legitimacy, ownership and effectiveness of G20 commitments by the member states and the third countries. The article discusses the evolution of the G20 Agenda in that spirit.

Evolution of G20 Process: From Crisis Management to Development Cooperation

This article was written by Priyadarshi Dash, Prativa Shaw and Akansh Khandelwal. It was originally published in May 2019 in Vol. 1, No. 1 of G20 Digest.

The G20 Needs to Show Leadership to Fight COVID-19

The G20 convened via teleconference to discuss the coronavirus pandemic and the economic impact. But what should be done?

The G20 Needs to Show Leadership to Fight COVID-19

By John Bruton

The COVID-19 Pandemic: Government vs. Community Action Across the United States

Using data from 40 million mobile devices across the US, this paper analyses how state and county governments’ non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPI) aimed at restricting social contact interact with individuals’ physical distancing behavior in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. We use difference-in-differences and instrumental-variable approaches to find that such NPIs lead to a significant uptake in physical distancing. Our estimates show that shelter-in-place policies can increase time spent at home by as much as 39%. Nevertheless, individuals engage in limited physical distancing even in the absence of NPIs, once the virus takes hold in their area. Moreover, we show that governments are more likely to implement lock-down policies if they face a population that does not take physical distancing measures on its own. Our analysis suggests that non-causal econometric approaches studying how the uptake in physical distancing responds to lock-down policies will yield biased results. Exploiting county-level data, we document significant socio-economic heterogeneity in individuals’ responses to the spread of COVID-19 and to lock-downs, and show how state- and county-level policies interact.

The COVID-19 Pandemic: Government vs. Community Action Across the United States

By Adam Brzezinski, Guido Deiana, Valentin Kecht and David Van Dijcke (University of Oxford – The Institute for New Economic Thinking)

The COVID-19 pandemic: A letter to G-20 leaders

Read the letter sent to the G-20 leaders and signed by 20 economists, and global health experts. Prof. Nora Lustig, IPSP Coordinating Lead Author is among the signatures. The letter urges world leaders “to urgently provide the necessary resources to reduce the losses in human life and back up those most vulnerable. The required investment is minute compared to the social and economic costs of inaction. History will judge us harshly if we do not get this right.”

The COVID-19 pandemic: A letter to G-20 leaders

By IPSP

Pandemic and Socialism

It is said that in a crisis everybody becomes a socialist; free markets take a back seat, to the benefit of the working people. During the second world war for instance, when universal rationing was introduced in Britain, the average worker became better nourished than before. Likewise, private companies get commandeered to produce goods for the war effort, thus introducing de facto planning.

Something of the sort is happening today under the impact of the pandemic. In country after country there is a socialization of healthcare and of production of some essential goods, which markedly departs from the capitalist norm; and the more severe the crisis the greater is the degree of socialization. Thus Spain, the second worst-hit European country after Italy, has nationalized all private hospitals to cope with the crisis: they are all now under the control of the government. Even Donald Trump is directing private companies to produce goods urgently needed during the pandemic. Tightening government control over production does not just characterize China at present; it marks U.S. policy as well, not to mention several European countries.

Pandemic and Socialism

By Prabhat Patnaik (IPSP)

The Action Imperative for the G20

COVID-19 unified G20 leaders at an extraordinary summit last week. An idea given a nudge by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, here was an opportunity for all participants to put together a plan and make a pledge for international cooperation, focusing on four main themes. Next, will they be able to turn words into action?

The Action Imperative for the G20

By Rajiv Bhatia (Gateway House)

Coronavirus is also a threat to democratic constitutions

Constitutions provide the legal principles for the governance of states, and their relationships with civil society. They are the rule books that make the nation-state effective, legitimate and decent. Most constitutions — the U.K. and the U.S. are rare exceptions — were forged in the aftermath of the second world war, or the cold war: for peacetime and normalcy. Can they survive the coronavirus crucible?

Coronavirus is also a threat to democratic constitutions

By Constanze Stelzenmüller (Brookings)

Geopolitical symptoms of COVID-19: Narrative battles within the Eastern Partnership

The spread of the latest Coronavirus strain is not simply a health crisis. It has long taken on a geopolitical dimension. China and Russia are engaged in a ‘global battle of narratives’ over who is the most generous international power. In the geopolitical competition for Eastern Partnership (EaP) countries, the European Union (EU) struggles to cut a good figure. The COVID-19 crisis could bring an EaP crisis.

Geopolitical symptoms of COVID-19: Narrative battles within the Eastern Partnership

By Mihai-Razvan Corman (Bertelsmann Stiftung) and Eliana Coraci (Bertelsmann Stiftung)