COVID-19

As states begin to reopen, Americans are looking at any trip outside through the lens of contagion. Is it safe to go back to Starbucks? What about the gym? Nail salons are out of the question, right? The country faces an ugly trade-off. Keep the economy closed and prolong the economic misery. Or open up the economy and risk a resurgence of Covid-19, undoing the gains earned through weeks of social isolation. We believe there’s another option.

The role of trust in health care systems has never been more important than during the current outbreak of COVID-19. Elias Papaioannou, Professor of Economics at London Business School and Academic Director of the Wheeler Institute for Business and Development was joined in conversation with Oeindrila Dube, the Philip K. Pearson Professor of Global Conflict Studies at the University of Chicago to discuss how her research in Sierra Leone during the Ebola outbreak has clear messages for national policymakers and the private sector when it comes to coping with the impact of the Coronavirus.

For many years, economists such as Daron Acemoglu and James A. Robinson have advanced the theory that differences in institutions cause big differences in national long-term growth and prosperity. According to Acemoglu and Robinson, places with a tradition of inclusion -- democracy, property rights, free labor and so on -- become richer in the long run, while places that abuse workers and citizens to extract maximum short-term value from them become poorer.