2020
November 13, 2020
Prof. Volker Wieland, IMFS
“Corona-Krise gemeinsam bewältigen, Resilienz und Wachstum stärken”
Prof. Volker Wieland expects that the German economy will return to its pre-Corona crisis level at the beginning of 2022, as he stated in the IMFS Policy Webinar on November 13, 2020: "The pandemic determines the course of the economy," said Wieland at the presentation of the annual report of the German Council of Economic Experts (GCEE), of which he has been a member since 2013. He added that although risks still existed, supply chains were intact and the sectors in lockdown only accounted for a small share of economic output. The German Council of Economic Experts expects gross domestic product to fall by 5.1 percent this year. Next year, the economy could then grow again by 3.7 percent. "It is a completely different kind of crisis than the financial crisis," Wieland emphasized. Both industrial production and trade in goods had recovered much faster than after the financial crisis.
According to Wieland, both the rapid response in monetary policy and the immense fiscal aid measures such as short-time work, bridging assistance, loans and tax breaks had a supporting effect. The Pandemic Emergency Purchase Program PEPP, which the European Central Bank (ECB) announced in mid-March and increased in June, has a volume of EUR 1.35 trillion. According to the calculations of the GCEE, the German government's economic stimulus package is likely to increase economic output by 0.7 to 1.3 percent this year. So far, companies have only made use of a small proportion of the corona aid. Wieland also sees the EU reconstruction fund as an opportunity to increase competitiveness.
However, the stimulus measures are not always targeted, Wieland said. "A reduction of the electricity tax and an extension of the tax loss carryforward would have been more sensible than the reduction of the sales tax". Also, income tax increases or a new wealth tax were the completely wrong way. "We can grow out of debt through economic growth". 'So far, the increase in German government debt is smaller than after the financial crisis. The GCEE expects the debt ratio to rise from 58.7 percent in 2019 to 72.1 percent this year. For 2021, the GCEE forecasts a slight decline to 71.1 percent.
In order to be able to react appropriately to future crises, however, it is necessary to reduce monetary and fiscal policy stimulus measures once the crisis is over, Wieland continued. "The ECB should therefore communicate an exit strategy from loose monetary policy in the coming year and show how it intends to reduce its bond holdings again".
To the English version of the Annual Report 2020/21 of the German Council of Economic Experts
June 24, 2020
Prof. Volker Wieland, IMFS
“Corona-Krise: Konjunkturausblick und wirtschaftspolitische Maßnahmen”
Drastic losses in industrial production, much more severe than during the financial crisis, an unprecedented collapse in consumer confidence, declining economic output, whether in Germany, the euro zone or China. Based on current data from the Corona crisis, Prof. Volker Wieland gave an overview of the economic situation in Germany and analyzed economic policy measures at the IMFS Policy Webinar.
On the previous day, the German Council of Economic Experts, of which Wieland has been a member since 2013, had lowered its economic forecast for Germany for this year to -6.5 per cent, while it expects growth of 4.9 per cent for the coming year. For the euro zone, the Council members forecast a decline of 8.5 per cent in the current year. "Only in 2022 we can expect to reach the pre-crisis level again", said Wieland in his virtual lecture. As the development in the euro area and in the United States was worse than initially foreseeable, the economic forecast was lower than the risk scenario which the Council of Economic Experts had assumed in March when hardly any data on the effects of the coronavirus were available.
While the pandemic is now declining in Europe and the focus is shifting to other regions, real-time data point to a gradual recovery, Wieland said. Since the beginning of May, the index for truck mileage has been on the rise again and electricity consumption is also continuing to increase, after having fallen by up to 80 per cent in Italy, for example. In order to support the recovery, the Federal Government has already decided on 353 billion euros in budget-effective measures and 819 billion euros in loans and guarantees - according to Wieland about 33 per cent of the gross domestic product. Measures of the IMF indicate that Germany and Italy are offering the largest discretionary support packages including options for loan guarantees among the euro zone member states. The liquidity support is key for helping the economy through the crisis. In addition, the German government is planning an economic stimulus package in the second quarter of 2020. However, this is not decisive for the current upward trend. "The main effect in the second quarter comes from the reduction in new infections and the easing of pandemic health restrictions, not from the economic stimulus package", said Wieland. He therefore sees the further course of the recovery as being linked to the degree of restrictions, uncertainty and income losses.
With the emergency purchase program PEPP, the European Central Bank (ECB) has also made its contribution to softening the economic impact of the pandemic. At the beginning of June, the ECB had decided its bond purchase program by 600 billion euros to a total of 1.35 trillion euros. It is important to scale back these measures when the crisis if overcome. "The PEPP program was not designed for the long term, so the ECB must be taken at its word", Wieland emphasized.
At European level, the member states could benefit from the 540 billion euros package agreed in April. This includes support for short-term work schemes, credit lines for sovereigns from the ESM stability mechanism and loan guarantees for private sector companies from the European Investment Bank. In any case, Wieland expects a large increase in debt. It is important to consider how to deal with this in the future. "We have to see how we can grow out of the debt again and avoid a mutualization of member state debt without control over the expenditure".
May 19, 2020
Philip Lane, European Central Bank; Vitor Gaspar, International Monetary Fund; Elga Barsch, Blackrock; Francesco Giavazzi, Bocconi University; Volker Wieland, IMFS
“Economic Outlook in the Coronavirus Pandemic and Policy Responses”
Video (Youtube)
Slides Philip Lane
Slides Vítor Gaspar
Slides Volker Wieland
As the coronavirus shapes all economic activity and also influences monetary policy, the IMFS Policy Webinar on May 19 focused on the pandemic and the adequate policy responses.
At the online event on the date when the conference “The ECB and Its Watchers“ was originally scheduled, ECB Chief Economist Philip Lane explained the current monetary policy of the ECB, pointing out that the announcement of the PEPP program has successfully halted the tightening in financial conditions and contributed to a partial reversal in the trend. In his presentation, he made clear that the ECB was “fully prepared to further adjust our instruments if warranted“. According to Lane, this included increasing the size of the PEPP and adjusting its composition, by as much as necessary and for as long as needed.
Looking at fiscal policy, Vítor Gaspar of the International Monetary Fund illustrated the strong increase in debt due to the corona crisis. According to IMF calculations public debt will amount to 122 per cent of GDP in 17 advanced economies in 2020. In the opinion of Elga Bartsch, “for the first time, fiscal policy is in the driving seat“. In her view, the spontaneous coordination between fiscal and monetary policy is a policy revolution. On the other hand, Bartsch who is Head of Economics and Markets Research at Blackrock, warned against a blurring of boundaries which could lead to a slippery slope. “The coordination does not have clear exit strategies.” She pointed out that this could cause fiscal pressure. Francesco Giavazzi of Bocconi Unversity was also convinced that “we will emerge with lots of public and private ebt” from the coronavirus pandemic. He recommended a combination of a reduction in government spending and a reduction in taxes as policy response. In his view, the winners will be “the countries that allow reallocation to happen”.
Finally, Volker Wieland illustrated the situation in Germany. He agreed that “fiscal policy is the first line of defense”. Measures such as short-time work helped employees to remain in their companies instead of being dismissed right away. However, as economic forecasts are going deeper and deeper, according to Wieland, “the strategies of easing the lockdown is key” to economic recovery.
April 17, 2020
Prof. Harald Uhlig, University of Chicago
“COVID19 und VWL: Was die ökonomische Sicht beiträgt”
How the economic perspective can be helpful in the coronavirus pandemic was the topic of an IMFS Policy webinar with Prof. Harald Uhlig.
For Prof. Harald Uhlig from the University of Chicago, the implementation of a national task force of at least 50 experts from various disciplines is essential in order to face the challenges of the corona crisis. In an IMFS Policy webinar on April 17th, he explained what economics can contribute.
Uhlig warned that the current situation could even deteriorate. In view of the economic slump, a possible threat for the banking system, a threatening overload of the health system and finally the imminent destruction of society, the economic perspective could be useful in order to solve difficult allocation and distribution problems. “The competence of economics lies within data analysis and handling dynamic models,” Uhlig said. In the webinar, he gave on overview about recent research papers on the coronavirus crisis.
For example, researchers Jesús Fernandez-Villaverde and Chad Jones estimated the mortality figures in Italy at given times during the lockdown on the basis of a model often used by epidemiologists. Uhlig himself analyzed the change in behavior in an opening after a lockdown. Together with Dirk Krueger from the University of Pennsylvania and Taojun Xie from the National University of Singapore he found that there is a change in behavior of people who are afraid of getting infected. “They prefer pizza to go, enjoying it at home, or watching a soccer game on TV rather than going to the stadium”. According to Uhlig, this shift to "low-infection goods" could help to prevent an economic slump and could lead to sectoral shifts on the labor market: “The waiter of the restaurant will deliver your pizza then”.
Other scholars investigated how much politics should interfere in the corona crisis. In their calculations, economists Fernando Alvarez, David Argente, and Francesco Lippi compared the corona death toll with the extent of the economic downturn. Michael Greenstone and Visham Nigam of the University of Chicago calculated that the value of life in the United States by social distancing is worth 8.000 billion dollars. Andy Glover, Jonathan Heathcote, Dirk Krueger, and Victor Rios-Rull concentrated people's preferences . They examined the question how much lockdown people will tolerate depending on their age and job. On the other hand, Veronica Guerrieri, Guido Lorenzoni, Ludwig Straub, and Ivan Werning looked at the Keynesian supply shock.
Uhlig concluded with an urgent appeal to the federal government to make use of this diverse economic expertise pooling it together with insights from hospitals, companies and further research areas in a task force, which should be split up in respective working groups.
CEPR Discussion Paper 14607 Dirk Krueger, Harald Uhlig, Taojun Xie: "Macroeconomic Dynamics and Reallocation in an Epidemic"
April 16, 2020
Prof. Dr. Veronika Grimm, Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg und Sachverständigenrat
“Der Weg aus dem Corona-Shutdown: Eine risikoadaptierte Strategie”
In an IMFS Policy webinar, Prof. Veronika Grimm described what a gradual easing of current restrictions in economy and society could look like.
The contact ban is still in effect, many stores are about to open but it is not clear when most of the school kids will return to their classrooms – this applies all the more to kindergarten and nursery. The restrictions in economy and society due to the coronavirus pandemic have paralyzed Germany in large parts. What a strategy for a gradual opening could look like was the topic of an IMFS Policy webinar with Veronika Grimm of Friedrich Alexander University Erlangen-Nürnberg.
First of all, flexibility is a decisive factor. “If the number of people infected gets out of control, you won’t have two or three weeks to react,” said Grimm, who is a Professor of Economic Theory and, since April, a proposed member of the German Council for Economic Experts. Together with an interdisciplinary group of fourteen scholars she has recently published a paper on a flexible and risk-adapted opening strategy.
Grimm argued that in the current lockdown various dimensions are important: the pressure on the economy, social hardships, and medical consequences. Therefore, the question when and how people can return to work can only be answered in a multidisciplinary way. For this reason, Grimm supports the implementation of task forces where researchers of various disciplines collaborate on a national and at the federal state level. These task forces are supposed to observe the impact of relaxations and regularly evaluate the situation and the appropriate reactions. In her view, a recommendation by a task force could be useful for policymakers when they have to defend their decisions. For Grimm, regionally different strategies due to different conditions based on the number of infected people and beds of intensive care available are justified. “However, rules based on certain indicators are important to minimize uncertainty,” Grimm said.
Also from a company’s perspective, clear frameworks and a certain period of preparation are necessary. “The better the preparatory measures, the more restrictions can be eased.” According to Grimm, besides the risk of infection and the question of belonging to a risk group, further decisive criteria are the importance of an area about to be opened in economy and society and the implementation possibilities of protection measures. She argued that the number of those who are infected and can pass on the coronavirus to others but do not show symptoms is also very important.
In Grimm’s opinion, digitizing the health system as fast as possible is an important instrument. In this context, she pointed out that the usual practice of using phone and fax among staff members of health authorities unnecessarily delays information processes. Also, app-based concepts for infection protection would be a significant step if they are accepted by the majority of people. A long, complete lockdown, which would also serve to avoid further waves of infection, is not conceivable at the moment. “Therefore, we will have to learn to live with protection measures for a long time and we will have to learn more about the coronavirus as fast as possible,” Grimm concluded.
April 8, 2020
Prof. Volker Wieland, IMFS
“Sondergutachten: Die gesamtwirtschaftliche Lage angesichts der Corona-Pandemie”
In an IMFS Policy webinar, Prof. Volker Wieland presented the economic outlook of the German Council of Economic Experts in the coronavirus pandemic.
In view of the coronavirus pandemic the German economy is heading towards a bigger recession in the second quarter than during the financial crisis in 2009. In an IMFS Policy Webinar on April 8, he presented the scenarios of the German Council of Economic Experts‘ special report. According to the report, a shutdown of five weeks and a recovery of three weeks would be manageable. However, “at the moment it does not look like this is going to happen,” Wieland warned. In comparison to the end of March – the publication date of the special report – the probability for a risk scenario with a pronounced V has increased.
The coronavirus pandemics at the same time hurts supply and demand. On the supply-side of the economy, the supply chains were disrupted and industrial inputs for chemical products or in the engineering industries could not be delivered. On the demand side, the demand for services in tourism, for events or in the catering sector were reduced due to quarantine measures. Therefore, according to Wieland, a conventional stimulus package is not what is needed. “It is not a matter of stimulating demand but of maintaining capacities by offering loans and liquidity.” In his view, a capital levy would also be the wrong measure, hurting mostly medium-sized companies. “This would counteract all rescue packages,” Wieland warned. Instead, he called for discussing an exit strategy. “We have to establish rules for protecting our health as a basis for ramping up production again.” He argued that a task force made up of experts of various disciplines could help in this process.
Wieland rejected the creation of mutualized debt that is discussed under the heading of "corona bonds". This would mean joint and several liability without direct control of spending incurred at the national level. It would likely lead to hard disputes between the member states, Wieland warned. He rather recommended to make use of the European Stability Mechanism (ESM). Regarding the conditionality of ESM loans that is considered a negative stigma in member states such as Italy, he recommended that several states make use of a credit line at the ESM simultaneously. In Wieland’s opinion, the interventions of the ECB that announced the Pandemic Emergency Purchase Programme (PEPP) on March 18 should remain a temporary crisis measure. The ECB has delivered in advance of other measures by fiscal authorities and the European Union. It can only reduce the risk spreads on sovereign debt for a certain time, Wieland argued.