SKK GSB Professor Gokce Basbug Publishes Study on Economic Policy Responses to the COVID-19

Professor Gokce Basbug (SKK GSB), in collaboration with Ceyhun Elgin (Columbia University) and Abdullah Yalaman (Eskisehir Osmangazi University) has published cutting-edge research on the economic policy responses to the COVID-19 pandemic.His article, “Economic Policy Responses to a Pandemic: Developing the Covid-19 Economic Stimulus Index”, appeared in CEPR’s Covid Economics: Vetted and Real-Time Papers, and has already gained wide coverage on media such as TIME, Washington Post, BBC, Forbes, VoxEU, and BBCMundo. 

The authors collected extensive data on the economic policy responses of 168 countries over the course of the pandemic since March 2020, including data on fiscaland monetary policy, and balance of payments/exchange rate measures. 

Typical fiscal policies included transfers to households and businesses, extension ofthe labor market and social safety benefits, and funds for the healthcare system. South Korea, for example, introduced cash transfers for quarantined individuals, consumption coupons for low-income households, and wage and rent support for small businesses; Germany expanded access to short-term work subsidies, increased childcare benefits for low-income parents, and provided grants to small business owners and self-employed persons affected by the outbreak etc. 

In addition, the study conducted a comparative analysis of measures across countries.The analysis showed that countries expected to experience a sharper decline in GDP in 2020 (according to the International Monetary Fund forecasts) adopted larger fiscal and macro-financial packages. In a similar vein, wealthier countries adopted larger policy packages. In comparison, countries with higher inflationrates in 2019 introduced lower policy rates and reserve requirement cuts, and adopted smaller macro-financial packages. 

The data, which have been regularly updated, can be found here:  http://web.boun.edu.tr/elgin/COVID.htm