COVID-19 began spreading at the end of 2019. Our posts cover the ensuing drop in employment; differential impacts on workers by income, race, ethnicity, gender, education, and parental status; unemployment insurance and other social supports to assist those impacted; the mounting red ink on federal and state budgets; and ramifications in areas ranging from developing countries, to education, the environment, and beyond.
October 13, 2020
Automatic stabilizers are spending or tax policies that cushion downturns and taper off as the economy improves. They respond rapidly and continue while needed.
October 1, 2020
The combination of job losses that were markedly worse for low-earning workers and the expansion of unemployment benefits made the CARES Act very progressive.
September 21, 2020
Michael Klein and Greg Mankiw (Harvard University) discuss how the economy and the way we think about it is changing in the wake of COVID-19.
September 14, 2020
As colleges and universities start the new academic year, Nathan Grawe (Carleton College) highlights the major challenges they face in the wake of COVID-19.
August 27, 2020
The Covid-19 recession has led to a sharp decline in women’s employment contrasting with previous recessions that saw a larger rise in unemployment for men.
August 18, 2020
CO2 emissions around the world have dropped markedly as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Can this drop make a lasting dent on our climate change trajectory?
August 17, 2020
Working parents depend on safe and reliable care for their children in order to be able to work. But preschool care and after school programs are in danger of permanently shutting down in the wake of COVID-19. On the latest episode of EconoFact Chats, host Michael Klein, and Alicia Sasser Modestino of Northeastern University discuss the impact of a lack of childcare on working families, and on the broader U.S. economic recovery.
August 11, 2020
The CARES Act added a $600 federal benefit that increased the generosity of state unemployment insurance. But many factors impact the intensity with which the unemployed seek work.
July 29, 2020
About one third of the U.S. workforce has a child under 14 in their household. Disruptions in childcare and schooling can hamper the recovery and hurt economic growth.