The latest research on the public health and economic costs and benefits of containing the coronavirus pandemic
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Scientists around the world are scrambling to find and test anti-viral drugs and a new vaccine for COVID-19, the disease behind the coronavirus pandemic now sweeping the planet. Economists and other social scientists are equally busy attempting to unravel the economic and social consequences of the…
First Jobs Day report since the onset of the coronavirus recession exposes a U.S. labor market in crisis
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The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics this morning released its monthly Employment Situation Summary, the first Jobs Day report to capture just how hard the coronavirus recession is hammering the U.S. labor market. The new report, coming after yesterday’s towering 6.65 million Unemployment Insurance c…
Two things state and local governments can do to mitigate the coronavirus recession in the United States
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The U.S. economy is infected by the coronavirus pandemic, and a deep recession is practically inevitable. Congress and the Federal Reserve will lead the effort to fix the economy with fiscal and monetary stimulus, but state and local governments, too, have an important role to play. Even the massive…
What Members of Congress Can Do After the Bailout
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(This opinion piece first appeared in the American Prospect on March 30, 2020.) Congress was faced with a choice last week over how to restructure our economy in the wake of the coronavirus crisis—a choice over the scale and length of the pain inflicted, and its impact on working people. While Democ…
U.S. Census Day 2020: The history and the challenges amid the coronavirus recession
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Overview April Fool’s Day usually marks a day filled with well-planned pranks and practical jokes, but this year’s April 1 commemorates a very special occasion: the 2020 Census Day. Census Day in the United States is no joke. It serves as the point-in-time reference of our nation’s population for th…
How the coronavirus pandemic is harming family well-being for U.S. low-wage workers
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As the effects of the new coronavirus sweep through the U.S. economy, low-wage workers are hit first and hardest. Today, economist Liz Ananat at Barnard College and psychologist Anna Gassman-Pines at Duke University released new analyses drawing from daily diary surveys conducted in a typical large…
The importance of an expanded U.S. Unemployment Insurance system during the coronavirus recession
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On March 24, my colleagues Emmanuel Saez and Gabriel Zucman at the University of California, Berkeley, gathered some 100 fellow economists and other experts online to discuss the actions the U.S. Congress and the president need to take now to mitigate the impact of the coronavirus lockdown on people…
The long-term consequences of recessions for U.S. workers
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Policymakers have asked—in some cases, demanded—that people stay home and businesses shutter as a public health crisis has unfolded across the United States, inducing an economic downturn. Despite positive developments in legislation passed last week, those policymakers have not put in place all the…
Getting money urgently to low-wage U.S. workers
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To cushion the blow of the COVID-19 pandemic, the U.S. Congress last week passed and President Donald Trump signed the $2.2 trillion emergency stimulus package, including provisions to send checks of up to $1,200 to each tax-paying citizen and hundreds of billions of dollars more to small businesses…
Congress fights back, and it’s absolutely necessary
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(This piece was updated on April 1, 2020 to reflect the IRS guidance on the economic impact payments related to the coronavirus recession.) The coronavirus is killing people at a breathtaking pace—more than 1,000 and counting in the United States and thousands more around the world. Dr. Anthony Fauc…