Pandemic Economics Podcast: Understanding the Economic Impact of COVID-19 | BFI

Insights from top economists to help you navigate the economic impact of the COVID-19 crisis. Hosts Tess Vigeland and Eduardo Porter talk to University of Chicago economists about their research, revealing important new ways to make sense of this moment. Economics is at the heart of crucial decisions about how we confront the COVID-19 crisis. Topics range from global trade to the changing meaning of work. Pandemic Economics is produced by the Becker Friedman Institute and Stitcher and is part of the University of Chicago podcast network. Production and original music in this series is by Story Mechanics.

Podcast Nov 5, 2020

Deep Dive Series – The Future of Money?

by Eduardo Porter, Tess Vigeland, Eric Budish, Brian Platz, Yuval Rooz, and Luigi Zingales

If use of cash continues to wane, will cryptocurrency be the new dollar bill? Is it a revolution or just hype? Economists Eric Budish and Luigi Zingales join blockchain experts to help explain how Bitcoin...

Topics: Technology & Innovation

Podcast Oct 22, 2020

Deep Dive Series – Is the Future Cashless?

by Eduardo Porter, Tess Vigeland, Fernando Alvarez, and Raghuram Rajan

When COVID lockdowns started, the use of cash plummeted. But the pandemic only accelerated a trend already underway. Is a fully cashless world on the horizon? Who benefits from using cash? Fernando Alvarez and Raghuram...

Podcast Oct 8, 2020

Deep Dive Series – The Health Care Conundrum, Part 2

by Eduardo Porter, Tess Vigeland, Katherine Baicker, Stacy Lindau, Neale Mahoney, David Meltzer, and Kenneth Polonsky

The US pays roughly twice as much per person for healthcare as other wealthy nations. Yet Americans are in worse health. A group of leading health economists, physicians, and hospital administrators help explain the system’s...

Topics: COVID-19, Health care

Podcast Sep 24, 2020

Deep Dive Series – The Health Care Conundrum, Part 1

by Eduardo Porter, Tess Vigeland, Katherine Baicker, and Pietro Tebaldi

The global pandemic has revealed critical gaps and weaknesses in the US health care system. How is our system structured and how did we get here? In part one of our deep dive into the...

Topics: COVID-19, Health care

Podcast Sep 11, 2020

Deep Dive Series – Climate vs. Development: The Global Dilemma

by Eduardo Porter, Tess Vigeland, Michael Greenstone, and Amir Jina

How you experience the global energy crisis and climate change depends in large part on where you live. For this special deep dive episode, Michael Greenstone and Amir Jina discuss long-term research on one place – Bihar,...

Topics: Energy & Environment

Podcast Aug 27, 2020

Episode 20: Can COVID Change the Climate?

by Eduardo Porter, Tess Vigeland, and Michael Greenstone

COVID-19 has prompted a significant decline in carbon emissions, accompanied by extraordinary economic cost. Professor Michael Greenstone discusses what energy economists are learning from the pandemic and how the trade-offs may be misinterpreted. If you’ve...

Topics: COVID-19, Energy & Environment

Podcast Aug 20, 2020

Episode 19: Uncovering the Politics of Mask Usage

by Eduardo Porter, Tess Vigeland, and Austin Wright

What does the 2016 election tell us about mask use in America? Quite a lot. Austin Wright draws on new research and what it can tell us about the relationship between partisanship and wearing a...

Topics: COVID-19

Podcast Aug 13, 2020

Episode 18: The COVID Slide: Impact on Childhood

by Eduardo Porter, Tess Vigeland, Ariel Kalil, John List, and Dana Suskind

You’ve likely heard of the summer slide in childhood learning. Will changes to education and toxic stress due to COVID-19 result in similar losses, especially for already disadvantaged children? John List and Dana Suskind share...

Topics: COVID-19, Early Childhood Education

Podcast Aug 6, 2020

Episode 17: Navigating Uncertainty

by Eduardo Porter, Tess Vigeland, Lars Peter Hansen, and Constantine Yannelis

How can leaders make sound policy decisions with incomplete information? Lars Peter Hansen and Constantine Yannelis outline what economic theory offers to decision-makers dealing with uncertainty and what it says about COVID-19 policy to date....

Topics: COVID-19

Podcast Jul 30, 2020

Episode 16: How to Price a Vaccine?

by Eduardo Porter, Tess Vigeland, Katherine Baicker, and Richard Thaler

Under both pandemic and economic stress, how will the market perform when it comes to setting the price for effective treatments or a cure? Katherine Baicker and Richard Thaler explore the economic forces that drive...

Topics: COVID-19, Health care

Podcast Jul 23, 2020

Episode 15: US & China: Relationship on the Rocks?

by Eduardo Porter, Tess Vigeland, Zhiguo He, and Chang-Tai Hsieh

Is COVID-19 complicating US-China relations? Zhiguo He and Chang-Tai Hsieh offer insight into how the current crisis has impacted existing dynamics between the world’s two largest economies. If you’ve listened to Pandemic Economics this season,...

Topics: COVID-19

Podcast Jul 16, 2020

Episode 14: The Holes in the Safety Net

by Eduardo Porter, Tess Vigeland, and Damon Jones

CARES Act funds quickly put cash in the hands of Americans affected by shutdown, but in many cases, relief didn’t reach minority and low-income workers who needed it most. Damon Jones discusses the inequalities in...

Topics: COVID-19

Podcast Jul 11, 2020

Episode 13: Stopping an Avalanche of Poverty

by Eduardo Porter, Tess Vigeland, and Bruce Meyer

One of the largest economic downturns in US history has not produced more poverty. What happened? Bruce Meyer describes how the federal government’s swift actions kept, or, in some cases, lifted families above the poverty...

Topics: COVID-19, Economic Mobility & Poverty

Podcast Jul 2, 2020

Episode 12: The Virus is the Boss

by Eduardo Porter, Tess Vigeland, Austan Goolsbee, and Chad Syverson

Is government policy driving consumer behavior or fear of infection? Austan Goolsbee and Chad Syverson share new research exploring this question, and why it matters for economic policy design. View Related Working Paper ...

Topics: COVID-19

Podcast Jun 25, 2020

Episode 11: The Lopsided Recession

by Eduardo Porter, Tess Vigeland, Veronica Guerrieri, and Erik Hurst

The current recession is not only unprecedented in its nature and scope, but also in its effects on industries, workers, and households. Veronica Guerrieri and Erik Hurst describe the unequal effects of this historic downturn,...

Topics: COVID-19, Employment & Wages

Podcast Jun 18, 2020

Episode 10: Meet the COVID-19 Consumer

by Eduardo Porter, Tess Vigeland, Michael Weber, and Constantine Yannelis

Consumer spending is one of the most important indicators of economic health. In this episode, Michael Weber and Constantine Yannelis share research insights on the effect of pandemic and federal stimulus policies on spending, and...

Topics: COVID-19

Podcast Jun 11, 2020

Episode 9: Could the Fed’s Rescue Go Awry?

by Eduardo Porter, Tess Vigeland, and Raghuram Rajan

Central banks are playing a critical, yet little discussed, role in limiting the economic damage of COVID-19. In this episode, Chicago Booth professor and former Governor of the Reserve Bank of India Raghuram Rajan discusses...

Topics: COVID-19, Monetary Policy

Podcast Jun 9, 2020

Episode 8: Rethinking the Jobless Benefits Boost

by Eduardo Porter, Tess Vigeland, Peter Ganong, and Joseph S. Vavra

Under the CARES Act, two-thirds of eligible unemployed Americans can access unemployment insurance exceeding their prior earnings. Peter Ganong and Joseph Vavra discuss what this fact means for the unemployed, economic recovery from COVID-19, and...

Topics: COVID-19, Employment & Wages

Podcast May 28, 2020

Episode 7: Learning from South Korea’s Success

by Eduardo Porter, Tess Vigeland, and Chang-Tai Hsieh

South Korea detected its first case of COVID-19 one day before the US, but rather than initiate lockdowns, it launched a program that shares location information on COVID-19 patients. Chang-Tai Hsieh discusses how South Korea...

Topics: COVID-19

Podcast May 21, 2020

Episode 6: Superspreaders

by Eduardo Porter, Tess Vigeland, Katherine Baicker, and Oeindrila Dube

Does visiting a bookstore put you at greater risk for infection than a fast-food restaurant? As states loosen lockdown restrictions on businesses, Katherine Baicker and Oeindrila Dube have developed a measure of which businesses pose...

Topics: COVID-19

Podcast May 14, 2020

Episode 5: Jobs Lost and the Child Care Conundrum

by Eduardo Porter, Tess Vigeland, Erik Hurst, and Joseph S. Vavra

Since March, 22% of American workers lost their jobs. How can we begin to think about such unprecedented labor market deterioration? Erik Hurst studied who has stopped receiving a paycheck, and provides context to the...

Topics: COVID-19

Podcast May 7, 2020

Episode 4: Policy Gambles?

by Eduardo Porter, Tess Vigeland, Steve Levitt, and Eric Zwick

Steve Levitt believes in the power of incentives and he has a new proposal for how to make widespread testing successful: set up a testers’ lottery and give gigantic cash prizes. And, Eric Zwick takes...

Topics: COVID-19

Podcast May 5, 2020

Episode 3: The Case for Optimism

by Eduardo Porter, Tess Vigeland, Steven J. Davis, and Austan Goolsbee

Is there any room for optimism amid an economic shock of this magnitude? Austan Goolsbee offers insights from past economic crises and a path forward for balancing trade-offs between public health and the economy. His...

Topics: COVID-19

Podcast Apr 30, 2020

Episode 2: Who Can Work From Home?

by Eduardo Porter, Tess Vigeland, Simon Mongey, and Brent Neiman

Many workers are able to continue working without leaving home and risking exposure. Looking at which workers have this option reveals other insights. In this episode, Brent Neiman and Simon Mongey discuss their research quantifying...

Topics: COVID-19

Podcast Apr 23, 2020

Episode 1: The Value of A Life

by Eduardo Porter, Tess Vigeland, and Michael Greenstone

Life is not priceless. But it’s also not cheap. Michael Greenstone describes how economics puts a value on life, and why it is so important to save as many lives as possible. As the...

Topics: COVID-19

Podcast Apr 19, 2020

Trailer: Introducing Pandemic Economics

A new podcast helping you navigate the economic impacts of the COVID-19 crisis.

Topics: COVID-19

More on this topic

Interactive Research Briefs·May 14, 2024

Return to Office and the Tenure Distribution

Austin Wright, David Van Dijcke, and Florian Gunsilius

Return-to-office (RTO) mandates drive employees away from firms, with senior employees leaving at the highest rates, likely leading to significant human capital costs in terms of output, productivity, innovation, and competitiveness for the companies implementing strict RTO policies.

Topics: COVID-19, Employment & Wages

Research Briefs·Mar 7, 2024

What Drives Inflation? Lessons from Disaggregated Price Data

Elisa Rubbo

US inflation in the early phases of the COVID pandemic was entirely driven by disruptions in supply and demand across industries, whereas most of the subsequent increase in consumer prices is driven by aggregate demand.

Topics: COVID-19, Monetary Policy

Research Briefs·Feb 1, 2024

Quantifying the Social Value of a Universal COVID-19 Vaccine and Incentivizing Its Development

Rachel Glennerster, Thomas Kelly, Claire T. McMahon, and Christopher M. Snyder

A universal COVID-19 vaccine that is effective against existing and future variants could provide the United States population with $1.5–$2.6 trillion more in social value than variant-specific boosters. The social value of a universal vaccine eclipses the cost of incentivizing...

Topics: COVID-19