Social Science Activities

Pandemics and Economy

The long-term economic effects of COVID-19

This online meeting was held by Miguel Sebastián, Professor of Economics at the Complutense University of Madrid and former Minister of Industry, Tourism and Commerce; Ángel de la Fuente, Executive Director of the Foundation for Applied Economics Studies (FEDEA); and José García Montalvo, Professor at the Pompeu Fabra University and member of the Council of Social Sciences of the Ramón Areces Foundation, who acted as moderator. Miguel Sebastián was in favor of "providing the European Central Bank with new tools for exceptional cases, so that it directly finances public spending, and we break the taboo that public spending can never, ever be financed." Ángel de la Fuente expressed his disagreement with one of the economic initiatives proposed by the Government in this crisis, the universal basic income.

Spain and its economy after the pandemic

To get out of the exceptional economic crisis caused by the COVID-19 health crisis, exceptional measures are needed, according to the three economists who participated in this online colloquium. Rafael Domènech, Director of BBVA Research; José Manuel González-Páramo, Professor of Economics at IESE and former counselor of the European Central Bank; and Miguel Jerez, from the Council of Social Sciences of the Ramón Areces Foundation, agreed that, in order to get out of the crisis, “it is more important to analyze how it is spent than how much is spent.” 

The role of the public sector after the pandemic

The objective of this conversation was to rethink what the role of the public sector should be in the market economy and what structural reforms should be addressed so that progress and economic development do not stop. Alfonso Novales, from the Royal Academy of Moral and Political Sciences, and Carlos Sebastián, Professor at the Complutense University of Madrid, were moderated by Daniel Santín, from the Complutense University of Madrid, and talked about the relationship between the public and private sectors, the quality of the management of public services, the reforms necessary to reduce inequality and guarantee the welfare state, and the role that the public sector should play in supporting innovation and economic growth.

Employment in Spain after the pandemic

Julio Segura, an academic at the Royal Academy of Moral and Political Sciences, and Samuel Bentolila, a professor at the Center for Monetary and Financial Studies (CEMFI), agreed that we are witnessing a generation gap in terms of employment and that urgent measures are needed to tackle the youth employment problem, further punished by the current economic crisis.  

Business dynamism and digitization: challenges in the face of the COVID-19 crisis

The coronavirus pandemic has produced a monumental economic shock and has forced our companies to adapt abruptly to the new circumstances. In this conversation we talked about recovery. Joaquín Maudos, Deputy Director of Research at the IVIE, moderated the discussion between Juan Fernández de Guevara, Professor of Economic Analysis at the University of Valencia and associate researcher at the IVIE; and Andrés Pedreño, Professor of Applied Economics. 

Spanish companies facing the COVID-19 crisis in Latin America

Xiana Margarida Méndez, Secretary of State for Commerce of the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Tourism, spoke with José Carlos García de Quevedo, President of the Official Credit Institute, in this online conversation that addressed the impact of the COVID-19 crisis on the profitability of Spanish investments in Latin America. The colloquium was moderated by Ramón Casilda Béjar, from IELAT (University of Alcalá).