Paid to Stay Home? An Entirely Intended Consequence of the COVID-19 Stimulus
In an earlier TOTM post, we argued as the economy emerges from the COVID-19 crisis, perhaps the best policy would allow properly motivated firms and households to themselves balance the benefits, costs, and risks of transitioning to “business as usual.” Sometimes, however, well meaning government policies disrupt the balance and realign motivations. Our post contrasted ... Paid to Stay Home? An Entirely Intended Consequence of the COVID-19 Stimulus
The CARES Act and the Tantalizing Promise of a Universal Basic Income
This week, Americans began receiving cold, hard cash from the government. Meant to cushion the economic fallout of Covid-19, the CARES Act provides households with relief payments of up to $1200 per adult and $500 per child. As we have written elsewhere, direct cash transfers are the simplest, least paternalistic, and most efficient way to ... The CARES Act and the Tantalizing Promise of a Universal Basic Income
Coronavirus treatments and vaccines: Patents … or a Prize?
Observers on TOTM and elsewhere have pointed out the importance of preserving patent rights as pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies pursue development of treatments for, and better vaccines against, Covid-19. As the benefits of these treatments could reach into the trillions of dollars (see here for a casual estimate and here for a more serious one), ... Coronavirus treatments and vaccines: Patents … or a Prize?
Cooperation, Competition, and COVID-19
Cooperation is the basis of productivity. The war of all against all is not a good model for any economy. Who said it—a rose-emoji Twitter Marxist, or a card-carrying member of the laissez faire Chicago School of economics? If you guessed the latter, you’d be right. Frank Easterbrook penned these words in an antitrust ... Cooperation, Competition, and COVID-19
Privacy in the Time of Covid-19
I type these words while subject to a stay-at-home order issued by West Virginia Governor James C. Justice II. “To preserve public health and safety, and to ensure the healthcare system in West Virginia is capable of serving all citizens in need,” I am permitted to leave my home only for a limited and precisely ... Privacy in the Time of Covid-19
Flattening the Curve without Squashing Society: Market Responses to COVID-19
The COVID-19 pandemic is changing the way consumers shop and the way businesses sell. These shifts in behavior, designed to “flatten the curve” of infection through social distancing, are happening across many (if not all) markets. But in many cases, it’s impossible to know now whether these new habits are actually achieving the desired effect. ... Flattening the Curve without Squashing Society: Market Responses to COVID-19
Policy Diversity Saves Lives: Unmasking Confirmation Bias Caused by a Virus
The brutal toll of the coronavirus pandemic has delivered dramatic public policies. The United States has closed institutions, banned crowds, postponed non-emergency medical procedures and instituted social distancing. All to “flatten the curve” of illness. The measures are expensive, but there is no obvious way to better save lives. There is evidence that, even without ... Policy Diversity Saves Lives: Unmasking Confirmation Bias Caused by a Virus
Production and Free Trade in the Wake of Covid-19 – Setting New Trade Trends for Future Economies
At a time when nations are engaged in bidding wars in the worldwide market to alleviate the shortages of critical medical necessities for the Covid-19 crisis, it certainly bares the question, have free trade and competition policies resulting in efficient global integrated market networks gone too far? Did economists and policy makers advocating for efficient ... Production and Free Trade in the Wake of Covid-19 – Setting New Trade Trends for Future Economies
COVID-19 Exposes the Shallowness of Our Privacy Theories
The importance of testing and contact tracing to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus and resume normal life is now well established. The difference between the communities that do it and the ones that don’t is disturbingly grim (see, e.g., South Korea versus Italy). In a large population like the U.S., contact tracing and ... COVID-19 Exposes the Shallowness of Our Privacy Theories
IP Rights Are Important, Even in Pandemics
The ongoing pandemic has been an opportunity to explore different aspects of the human condition. For myself, I have learned that, despite a deep commitment to philosophical (neo- or classical-) liberalism, at heart I am pragmatic. I would prefer a society that optimizes for more individual liberty, but I am emphatically not someone who ... IP Rights Are Important, Even in Pandemics
The Covidien/Newport Merger: Killer Acquisition or Just a Killer Story?
[TOTM: The following is part of a blog series by TOTM guests and authors on the law, economics, and policy of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The entire series of posts is available here. This post is authored by Geoffrey A. Manne, (President, ICLE; Distinguished Fellow, Northwestern University Center on Law, Business, and Economics); and Dirk Auer, (Senior Fellow ... The Covidien/Newport Merger: Killer Acquisition or Just a Killer Story?
The Pandemic Exception that Proves the Market Rule
[TOTM: The following is part of a blog series by TOTM guests and authors on the law, economics, and policy of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The entire series of posts is available here. This post is authored by Tim Brennan, (Professor, Economics & Public Policy, University of Maryland; former FCC; former FTC).] Thinking about how to think about ... The Pandemic Exception that Proves the Market Rule
