Tackling the fallout from COVID-19
Laurence BooneCountries should cooperate on support to healthcare in countries where it is needed, as
well as on containment measures. In addition, if countries announced coordinated fiscal
and monetary support, confidence effects would compound the effect of policies (OECD
2019, Boone and Buti 2019). This would help reverse the sharp decline in confidence
that a more widespread outbreak would provoke. It would also be more effective than
working alone. Our work presented in the November 2019 OECD Economic Outlook
(OECD 2019) shows that if G20 economies implement stimulus measures collectively,
rather than alone, the growth effects in the median G20 economy would be one-third
higher after just two years.
Some would say it is trite to call for international cooperation. However, in this globally
connected economy and society, the coronavirus and its economic and social fallout is
everyone’s problem, even if firms decide in the wake of this virus shock to repatriate
production and make it less inter-dependent.
Authors’ note: For more information visit the latest Interim Economic Outlook, released
2 March 2020.
References
Boone, L and M Buti (2019), “Right here, right now: The quest for a more balanced
policy mix”, VoxEU.org, 18 October.
OECD (2019), OECD Economic Outlook, Volume 2019 Issue 2, OECD Publishing.
OECD (2020), OECD Economic Outlook, Interim Report March 2020, OECD
Publishing.
About the author
Laurence Boone is Chief Economist at the OECD, leading the Economics Department
and supervising the contributions of the Economics Department to the New Approaches
to Economic Challenges (NAEC) and Inclusive Growth (IG) initiatives. She represents
the OECD on economic issues and participates with the Secretary-General in the
International Monetary and Financial Committee, and with the OECD Sherpa in the
G7 and G20 meetings. From 2016-2018 she was Chief Economist at AXA Group,
and Head of Research and Member of the Management Board of AXA Investment
Managers. From 2014 to 2016, Laurence was special advisor to the French president on
multilateral and European economic and financial affairs. Prior to this, she was Chief
Economist Europe & Managing Director at Bank of America Merrill Lynch Global