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Time for that monster recap thread on how I tried to incorporate the Covid19/pandemics topics in my European Economic Policies class this year (master students with no super strong background in social sciences. 1/n
1st difficult step was to find a solid mandatory reading text to introduce the macroeconomic issues related to the topic (macrostuff is always the hardest to chew so better to have prereading). @ojblanchard1 new free (!) handbook chapter is super helpful
2nd step was to define main themes and perspectives that could be reasonably tackled in 2h online class along a coherent red line, moving from historical tendencies to their lived experiences to future perspectives. 2/n
Let's start with history. One of the most amazing things I've learned relates to the institutionnal regularities associated with pandemics: viruses travel alongside trade roads, they question social & economic orders, redefine livelihoods...3/n
1st example: Marseille 1720: the arrival of the plague was caused by greed & corruption. A ship skipped quarantine measures because local authorities wanted to speed up the unloading of its shipment to make it on time for the local fair 4/n.
After the outbreak of the plague, rich people flew to the countryside, including some political authorities, and an institutional innovation occurred: the use of visas to regulated citizens' domestic movements 5/n
2nd regularity: the backlash against confinement measures. In the 14th century Genoa, traders complained about lockdowns impact on their trade, oh and just check these newspapers headlines from 1918 California or London movies theatres complaints. 6/n
Moving to public policies, first step is to spell out the motives and constraints that drove the answer of political authorities to the crisis (unfortunately, do not have the time to dig into epistemological debates related to the interactions btw politics & epidemiologists).7/n
I also introduce a debate on whether a trilemma shape the political answer to the Covid. Following that ideal type, US,UK & Sweden would be on the right, South East Asia on the left, Western Europe on the bottom 8/n
Macroeconomics now, which form the backbone of the class. Two lines of analysis: understanding the economic shock as well as the European answer to the pandemic. First, the economic shock: it is policy induced and stresses both offer & demand. Financial stress limited thx to CB.
Moving to the EU answer, critical take on the "hamiltonian moment" of the EMU while recognizing some changes. Crisis is still mostly dealt at the national level (except ECB) but mutualization of debt starts to see the daylight. 10/n
The most promising aspect of Recovery fund is not its amount (way too small) but its redistributive effects between South, North, East & West. 11/n
Moving to perspectives, we analyse how the impact of our policy answer to Covid on inequalities & power balance within capitalist systems. Social inequalities first: I suspect very strong blinders from policymakers on the distributive effects of confinements measures 12/n
Those are mostly tailored for nuclear, white-collar families. A gender perspective also helps to understand that single mothers are, by far, the most affected by confinement measures.13/N
Finally, the class ends on some possible future perspectives, notably a likely shift of political authorities & power from Western capitalist societies to more embedded forms of capitalism in South-East Asia.14/n
I'd be very glad to have (constructive) criticism and perspectives to improve that class for next year! I had many doubts, struggles with the literature when preparing the class so it's very much work in progress
