A conference on economic policy in the times of COVID-19, with special emphasis on monetary policy in Advanced and Emerging Market Economies, is being jointly organized by the Center for Latin American Monetary Studies (CEMLA), the European Central Bank (ECB), and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York (FRBNY). It will be held digitally on 7-9 July 2021. The main purpose of the conference is to stimulate the discussion of research on current monetary policy issues, including its interactions with other economic policies to mitigate the negative economic effects of the pandemic.
The accommodative monetary policy stance and facilities implemented in most Advanced Economies (AEs) have helped avoid a worse-case scenario for the global economy. That said, they could possibly have unintended effects. For their part, Emerging Market Economies’ (EMEs) central banks have responded implementing various policies and facilities. The diverse fiscal support, vaccination efforts, and technological advances could imply highly heterogeneous recovery paths both across AEs and EMEs.
The economic growth has started recovering after taking a toll, but the speed and intensity of a general recovery as well as its distributional effects remain uncertain. Possible increases in insolvency rates might trigger inverse feedback loops between the real economy and the financial system. Additionally, in many economies, there might be fundamental longer-term issues pertaining to the possibility of considerable resource reallocation and financial repair.
Many policies have been initially implemented under the implicit assumption that the pandemic would be short-lived. Over time, it has become clear that this may not be the case (due to, e.g., new strains of the virus and lower-than-expected availability of vaccines). Also, independently of the pandemic’s duration, structural changes in the economy, may very well take place. Both of these imply that various policies will need to be adjusted, becoming more targeted and, thus, focused on supporting the sustainable economic growth in a post-COVID world. Furthermore, ongoing challenges have raised genuine concerns about scarring effects, some sectors’ subsistence, debt sustainability, and policy efficiency.
Theoretical and policy papers submissions addressing these and related issues are encouraged. Specific examples of relevant topics include, but are not limited to:
- Shifts in global liquidity and U.S. dollar funding markets
- Lessons on the March 2020 financial turmoil and policy responses
- Implications of international spillovers for monetary policy
- Central banks’ policy responses
- How should monetary policy and other economic policies interact, including post-COVID?
- Uneven recovery from the crisis (i.e., K recovery)
- Post-pandemic inclusive growth and policies going forward
- Implications of the COVID-19 crisis on the financial system
- Policy responses considering epidemiological and economic dynamics
- Central banks’ policies recalibration to account for ongoing COVID challenges
- Governance and oversight of governments’ emergency facilities, including eligibility criteria and monitoring
- Unintended consequences of emergency facilities (e.g., moral hazard)
- Monetary policy response and its distributional effects.
- Possible resource reallocation and financial repair.
The conference will feature as keynote speakers Gianluca Benigno (FRBNY), Linda S. Goldberg (FRBNY), Manuel Ramos-Francia (CEMLA), and Livio Stracca (ECB). Complete manuscripts should be submitted electronically in PDF format to Conf2021@cemla.org by May 7, 2021. The authors of accepted papers will be notified by June 7, 2021.
Participants who are interested in submitting their paper to the Latin American Journal of Central Banking (LAJCB) will be offered an accelerated review process. Please let us know in your email whether you intend to submit your paper to the LAJCB.