The Pandemics working group analyzes aspects of governance and political economy during pandemics.
Pandemic are not only biological events. They generate impacts that are worth understanding from a broad societal, political and economic perspective. This requires focusing on the big picture and on fundamental questions. Central features of our global society such as connectivity, mobility, and social interactions render the world more vulnerable to the challenge of pandemic diseases.
Pandemics increase the general problem of scarcity that always exists in society. For every decision made, opportunity costs must be considered in order to reduce total damage for society. Awareness of a secondary non-biological crises arising from the side effects of pandemic reactions need to be raised at the same time.
Questions that can be explored within the working group are, among others: Why are some countries/region handling the crisis better than others? What is the role of political and economic institutions for crisis management? How can resources be effectively mobilized? What are the lessons for the future?
Specific Research Ideas Related to the Pandemic and Addressed by the Working Groups (non-exhaustive list)
- What type of institutions should be built to deal with a pandemic?
- What is the relevance of the separation of powers and “checks and balances”?
- How do and how should we deal with emergencies that may require temporary concentration of power?
- The political economy of rational behavior versus panic during crisis.
- Macroeconomic and general equilibrium aspects related to redistributive politics.
- The economics and politics of government debt: Who is buying government bonds to pay for stimulus programs?
- Enforcement and cooperation mechanisms during pandemics: Lockdowns, trust, immunity certificates.
- Role of experts during crises.
Working Group Leader:
David Stadelmann (david.stadelmann@uni-bayreuth.de)
Contacts:
David Stadelmann (david.stadelmann@uni-bayreuth.de)
Gustavo Torrens (gtorrens@indiana.edu)
Short CV of Working Group Leader
Prof. Dr. David Stadelmann studied Economics (MA/BA) as well as Mathematics (MSc/BSc) at the University of Fribourg (Switzerland) where he received his PhD in 2010 in Economics and Social Sciences.
He has been teaching and researching as a professor at the University of Bayreuth (Germany) since 2013 (call at age of 29). He is a committed educationalist.
David Stadelmann's research interests include political, public and institutional economics as well as the topics related to growth, development, federalism, and global factor mobility. He has authored over 40 scientific publications in international peer-reviewed journals (among others in the PLOS ONE, Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, Public Choice, Journal of Development Economics) and seeks to extend economics beyond the standard neo-classics by including insights from other disciplines such as political science and sociology.
He publishes policy relevant findings of his research in non-academic outlets such as newspapers, magazines and blogs and he is a regular guest at international conferences around the world. He is a research fellow at CREMA (Center for Research in Economics, Management and the Arts), BEST (Centre for Behavioural Economics, Society and Technology), the Walter-Eucken-Institut, IREF (Institute for Research in Economic and Fiscal Issues), among others.
He has been awarded diverse research prices including the “Reinhard-Selten-Preis” (German Economic Association), the “Ludwig-Erhard-Preis” (Ludwig Erhard Foundation), or the “Wissenschaftspreis” of the Region of Vorarlberg. Since 2015 he is an editor of the peer-reviewed journal Kyklos – International Review for Social Sciences.
Scientific and Other Contributions
The working group leader has already authored several scientific contributions (peer-reviewed articles and working papes) on the COVID-19 crisis and these contributions are discussed in the international press.
Extract of Scientific Contributions
- Eichenberger, R., Hegselmann, R., Savage, D. A., Stadelmann, D., and Torgler, B. (2020). Certified Coronavirus Immunity as a Resource and Strategy to Cope with Pandemic Costs. Kyklos, forthcoming, https://doi.org/10.1111/kykl.12227.
- Eichenberger, R., Hegselmann, R., Savage, D. A., Stadelmann, D., and Torgler, B. (2020). Corona-Immunity as a Resource and Opportunity for Emerging Markets. in The Viral World, Observer Research Foundation, forthcoming.
- Frempong, R. B., Stadelmann, D., and Wild, F. (2020). A Perspective on Secondary Effects of the Spread of COVID-19 in Sub-Saharan Africa), CREMA Contributions to Economic Policy No 2020-8, Center for Research in Economics, Management and the Arts, http://www.crema-research.ch/bawp/2020-08.pdf
- Eichenberger, R. Hegselmann, R., Stadelmann, D. (2020). Corona-Immunität als entscheidende Ressource: Der Weg zurück in die Normalität, CREMA Contributions to Economic Policy No 2020-3, Center for Research in Economics, Management and the Arts, http://www.crema-research.ch/bawp/2020-03.pdf
- Eichenberger, R., Hegselmann, R., Savage, D. A., Stadelmann, D., and Torgler, B. (2020). Coronavirus Immunity: A Certifiably Valuable Resource, https://socialsciences.nature.com/users/376755-benno-torgler/posts/66406-coronavirus-immunity-a-certifiably-valuable-resource, Dialogues - COVID-19 , NATURE community Behavioral & Social Sciences, https://socialsciences.nature.com/users/376755-benno-torgler/posts/66406-coronavirus-immunity-a-certifiably-valuable-resource
Extract of Contributions in the International Press
This working group will focus on research around the challenges and solutions to issues of governance across a range of actors and actions in those areas of the world that are unregulated or underregulated. Our goal is to bring together a range of scholars across campus working from a range of disciplinary traditions to advance the global study of some of the world’s most pressing social, legal, and political challenges. The group works to address questions such as: How do we define governance? What kinds of spaces are more likely to be ungoverned? How do we conceptualize areas of overlapping or contested governance?
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