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• Case | HBS Case Collection | May 2020

  COVID-19: The Global Shutdown

  Laura Alfaro and Sarah Jeong

  In the first months of 2020, a pandemic overwhelmed the world. COVID-19, commonly known as the coronavirus, spread from China and created a severe public health emergency across countries. While an immediate fear of the disease’s impact on human life permeaacted society, the world battled another concern for the severe economic downturn that was brought about by attempts to suppress the virus. World trade, tourism, capital flows, remittances, and commodity prices collapsed. Prior to the coronavirus outbreak, the global GDP growth rate for 2020 was expected to be close to 2.3%. As of April 2020, multilateral organizations estimated that GDP would contract by 3%—way worse than the 0.1% contraction of 2009, and the deepest dive since the Great Depression. What policy options existed to mitigate the financial and economic distress of containment, and what factors did different countries weigh in deciding which paths to choose? Was there a terrible choice—either damage livelihoods through extended lockdowns, or sacrifice thousands or even millions of lives to the virus—or were policies reinforcing? What was the role of government, businesses, communities and individuals? After the worst of the health crisis was mitigated, what kind of shape would world economies take?

  Keywords: Trade; Microeconomics; Macroeconomics; Financial Crisis; Economy; Economic Systems; Economic Slowdown and Stagnation; Economic Sectors;

  Citation:

  Alfaro, Laura, and Sarah Jeong. "COVID-19: The Global Shutdown." Harvard Business School Case 320-108, May 2020.  View Details

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• Working Paper | 2020

  Social Interactions in Pandemics: Fear, Altruism, and Reciprocity

  Laura Alfaro, Ester Faia, Nora Lamersdorf and Farzad Saidi

  Citation:

  Alfaro, Laura, Ester Faia, Nora Lamersdorf, and Farzad Saidi. "Social Interactions in Pandemics: Fear, Altruism, and Reciprocity." Working Paper, May 2020.  View Details

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• Case | HBS Case Collection | April 2020 (Revised April 2020)

  Unrest in Chile

  Vincent Pons, William Mullins, John Masko, Annelena Lobb and Rafael Di Tella

  In 2020, Chileans would head to the ballot box to decide their country’s future. Many international observers credited Chile’s decades of neoliberal governance with turning the country into Latin America’s “Tiger,” a prosperous, diversified economy on its way to becoming the continent’s first developed country. But in October of 2019, a mass protest movement ground the country to a halt and shocked its political class, showing the world a different Chile—one defined by inequality, social distrust, and a young generation of political activists. As Chile prepared to vote in the fall of 2020 on whether to adopt a new constitution, could it sculpt a more equitable society while remaining “the exception” on a continent known for its political instability? Or would Chile’s prosperity go the same way as its neoliberal experiment?

  Keywords: Developing Countries and Economies; Macroeconomics; Economy; Political Elections; Public Opinion; Social Issues; Equality and Inequality; System Shocks; Chile; Latin America;

  Citation:

  Pons, Vincent, William Mullins, John Masko, Annelena Lobb, and Rafael Di Tella. "Unrest in Chile." Harvard Business School Case 720-033, April 2020. (Revised April 2020.)  View Details

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