NIESR Newsletter April 2020

NIESR April 2020 Newsletter

View this email in your browser

National Institute of Economic and Social Research
Newsletter - April 2020

Welcome to NIESR’s newsletter, a regular catch-up with our activities and preview of the coming weeks.

NIESR has followed government advice regarding the global pandemic. We are all working from home, and face-to-face events at the Institute are postponed until June at least. Other than that, it's business as usual! Authoritative and independent analysis has never been more needed than now - and we're here to help. Please get in touch if we can work together in any way...

Economic Crisis: Covid-19

Our excellent networks, state of the art modelling, cross disciplinary research and economic measurement makes NIESR ideally placed to lead debate on the social and economic impact of the Coronavirus. We have started to publish a range of perspective from our staff and partners, and will continue to do so over the coming weeks. We have collated the research on our website here, and will continue to update this page.

New Projects

March was a busy and exciting month for NIESR, as we were awarded the following projects: Good recruitment for older workers - understanding individuals’ recruitment experience, funded by Centre for Ageing Better; Investigating the factors driving Scotland’s productivity gap with other countries, funded by the Scottish Government; Statistical modelling of bilateral trade flows, funded by the Department for International Trade; Low Pay Commission (LPC): Open call - Minimum wages and technology adoption, funded by LPC/ UK SBS and Macroeconomic modelling of recession planning scenarios, funded by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation.

We are very much open to discussing how we can partner with other like-minded institutions and form collaborations at this time, as we try to understand what this event means for our way of life.

As you may know, NIESR is a recipient of the prestigious Impact Acceleration Account from the ESRC. This grant provides us with dedicated funding to further our reach and maximise the impact of our research; including through external partnerships. If you would like to hear more about how you can partner with NIESR, whether through the IAA or otherwise, please do get in touch.

Get in touch

We are Delighted to Welcome
Professor Adrian Pabst and Dr Claudine Bowyer-Crane to NIESR

Professor Adrian Pabst has joined NIESR as Deputy Director for Social and Political Economy. Adrian is one of two Deputy Directors at NIESR. His research is at the interface of political theory, political economy and public policy. He has a particular interest in the interaction between traditions of political economy, contemporary politics and fiscal policy. Find out more about Adrian here.

Dr Claudine Bowyer-Crane has joined NIESR as Associate Research Director for Employment and Social Policy. Claudine is the Associate Research Director for the Employment and Social Policy team. She is a Psychologist, whose research focuses primarily on designing and evaluating early interventions to support children’s language development. She also carries out research to support the educational achievement of children who speak English as an Additional Language. Find out more about Claudine here.

NIESR-OMFIF Webinar: Assessing the Economic Impact of Coronavirus

On Tuesday 7 April, OMFIF held a virtual roundtable 'Assessing the economic impact of coronavirus' with Garry Young (Director of Macroeconomic Modelling and Forecasting at NIESR) and Jagjit Chadha (Director of NIESR):

As uncertainty continues over the economic impact of coronavirus on the global economy, the National Institute of Economic and Social Research examines the potential ramifications, using stylised scenarios based on the National Institute’s Global Econometric Model. Two architects of NIESR’s most recent report join OMFIF in presenting their findings. They specifically focus on the different channels of impact including through the labour market, consumers’ expenditure and investment, higher uncertainty and a temporary shutdown in some sectors. Not accounting for substantial policy responses, the underlying impact on global GDP growth is likely to be at least as large in magnitude as the 2008 financial crisis.

Latest NIESR Blogs

"The case for supporting high quality home learning environments made stronger by COVID-19" by Claudine Bowyer-Crane

In the wake of Covid-19 related nursery and school closures, the quality of the home learning environment is more important than ever. We know that very young children depend on high quality interaction to support their cognitive, language, social and emotional development and the current crisis only serves to emphasise the need for good quality programmes that support families in providing the best start for their children.

"The Economy on Ice: Preventing Economic Contagion" by Spiros Bougheas

The COVID-19 pandemic is not only a health crisis. The confinement of people to their homes has profound effects on the economy. As economic activity slows down many firms find it impossible to meet their obligations to their suppliers, creditors, landlords and workers. Unless, they receive financial assistance will collapse into administration.

Discussion Papers

"The Fed’s enhanced swap lines and new interventions in the Treasury market" by William A Allen and Richhild Moessner

In March 2020, the Federal Reserve enhanced its existing swap lines with foreign central banks, and introduced additional temporary swap lines with other central banks, in order to support the smooth functioning of U.S. dollar funding markets during the coronavirus epidemic. The Federal Reserve also announced purchases of US Treasuries and agency mortgage bonds in order to support the smooth functioning of the Treasury and mortgage-backed securities market. We analyse the motivations for and the effects of these measures.

"Brexit and the Euro" by Nauro F Campos and Corrado Macchiarelli

The year 2019 marked the 20th anniversary of the establishment of the Euro. It was also the last full year before the UK formally left the European Union. This paper examines the relationship between the UK and the euro area.