The
Covid-19 pandemic has generated human suffering and
economic devastation across the world – but these
reflect not just the effects of the disease but the
policy failures of governments. The pandemic has highlighted
and accentuated the extent of inequalities between
and within countries. These have been reflected in
the differential ability of different countries to
deal with the disease and limit the contagion, as
well as the impact on economies of both the disease
and containment measures like lockdowns. Some countries
have been remarkably successful in managing the disease,
while others have shown rapid spread despite severe
lockdown strategies; economic policies in response
to the health crisis have also varied greatly, and
have had very different outcomes in different parts
of the world. How do we interpret these differing
trajectories of the disease, policy responses and
economic outcomes? What does this tell us about the
current stage of global capitalism and the evolution
of particular economies?
This volume brings together articles that came out
of an online lecture series jointly organized by the
Society for Social and Economic Research (SSER) and
International Development Economics Associates (IDEAs)
over a period of about one month in April–May 2020,
when the pandemic was still in its first rising wave.
The subsequent trajectory of the disease and the continued
persistence of infection and vulnerability have made
them all the more relevant. The chapters in this book
go well beyond analysing the observed patterns and
assessing the official responses, to proposing necessary
and viable policy alternatives. If the world is truly
to transcend this pandemic and its economic fallout,
and be in a position to confront other current and
future challenges, the arguments made in this volume
are likely to become even more important.
CONTENTS
Tables and Figures
INTRODUCTION
Covid-19 and the Economy: Initial Impacts across the
World
VIKAS RAWAL, JAYATI GHOSH and C.P. CHANDRASEKHAR
PART ONE
Global and Regional Trajectories
1) Globalization and the Pandemic
PRABHAT PATNAIK
2) Capitalism in the Twenty-first Century: Lopsided
Growth and Intensified Social Exclusion
ERINÇ YELDAN
3) The Gendered Macroeconomics of Covid-19
JAYATI GHOSH
4) Covid-19 in Europe: Aggravating North–South Tensions
in the European Union
ERIK S. REINERT
5) International Financial Cooperation to Address
the Latin American Economic Crisis
JOSÉ ANTONIO OCAMPO
6) Economic Impact of Covid-19 in South America
MARTÍN ABELES, MARTÍN CHERKASKY and
MATÍAS TORCHINSKY LANDAU
7) The Coronavirus and the Emerging Media Ecology
SASHI KUMAR
PART TWO
The Impact of Policy Responses
8) The Pandemic Requires a Different Macroeconomic
Policy Response
JAN KREGEL
9) Explaining the Differences in Covid-19 Mortality
between the North and the South
GIOVANNI ANDREA CORNIA
10) Look East, Not West: Comparative Lessons for Containing
Covid-19 Contagion
JOMO KWAME SUNDARAM
11) Thailand and Covid-19: What’s Happened and What’s
Next
PASUK PHONGPAICHIT and CHRIS BAKER
12) The Indian Economy Before and After the Pandemic
C. P. CHANDRASEKHAR
13) The Coronavirus and India’s Economic Crisis: Continuity
and Change
SURAJIT MAZUMDAR
14) Mexico: Confronting the Pandemic while Transforming
the Political Landscape
ALICIA PUYANA MUTIS and LILIA GARCIA MANRIQUE
PART THREE
Food and Agriculture in a Time of Disease
15) The Bengal Famine and Its Lessons for the Present
UTSA PATNAIK
16) Impact of the Covid-19 Pandemic on Indian Agriculture
ABHIJIT SEN and VIKAS RAWAL
17) Covid-19: An Opportunity for Breaking with the
Global
Food Supply Chain
WALDEN BELLO
CONTRIBUTORS
Martín Abeles is Director,
United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America
and the Caribbean (ECLAC), Buenos Aires. His main
areas of expertise are macroeconomics, international
finance and development economics. He has been a research
fellow at various academic institutions and held different
positions at the Ministry of Economy in Argentina.
He is currently Director, Master’s Programme in Development
Economics at the National University of San Martín
(UNSAM) in Argentina.
Chris Baker is a historian. His
early work is on the political history of south India.
He has worked extensively on Thailand’s political
economy, history and literature. In 2017, he (with
Pasuk Phongpaichit) won the Fukuoka Grand Prize which
‘honors individuals or groups that have made outstanding
achievements in preservation and creation of the unique
and diverse cultures of Asia’.
Walden Bello is a well-known activist,
academic and writer from the Philippines. He is currently
International Adjunct Professor of Sociology at the
State University of New York at Binghamton, and co-chairperson
of the Bangkok-based research and advocacy institute
Focus on the Global South. He received the Right Livelihood
Award (also known as the Alternative Nobel Prize)
in Stockholm in 2003 for his work showing the negative
impact of corporate-driven globalization.
C. P. Chandrasekhar is former Professor
of Economics at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi.
His areas of interest include the macroeconomics of
development and the role of finance and industry in
developing countries. He is a regular columnist for
Frontline, Business Line and Economic and Political
Weekly. Among his recent publications are Demonetisation
Decoded: A Critique of India’s Currency Experiment
(co-authored with Jayati Ghosh and Prabhat Patnaik,
2020) and Karl Marx’s ‘Capital’ and the Present: Four
Essays (2017).
Martín Cherkasky is an economist
at the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin
America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), Buenos Aires. He
studied economics at the University of Buenos Aires
(UBA) and the National University of San Martín
(UNSAM). His research focuses on macroeconomics, international
finance and economic growth.
Giovanni Andrea Cornia taught development
at the University of Florence from 2000 to 2017, where
he was made Honorary Professor of Economics in 2017.
From 1995 to 2000, he was Director, United Nations
University World Institute for Development Economics
Research (UNU-WIDER), Helsinki. He also worked as
lead economist at the United Nations Children’s Fund
(UNICEF) headquarters in New York and the Innocenti
Research Centre (IRC) in Florence. His work has focused
on inequality, macroeconomics, poverty, mortality
and child well-being.
Jayati Ghosh taught economics at
Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi for nearly
thirty-five years, and is now Professor of Economics,
University of Massachusetts, Amherst, USA. She has
authored and edited (alone and in collaboration) twenty
books and published more than 200 scholarly articles,
in addition to writing frequently in the popular media.
She has been Executive Secretary, International Development
Economics Associates (IDEAs) and serves on a number
of international commissions.
Jan Kregel is Director of Research
at the Levy Economics Institute, USA. He has served
as Rapporteur of the President of the United Nations
General Assembly’s Commission on Reform of the International
Financial System, directed the Policy Analysis and
Development Branch of the United Nations Financing
for Development Office, and was Deputy Secretary of
the United Nations Committee of Experts on International
Cooperation in Tax Matters. In 2011, Kregel was elected
to the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei. He is a life
fellow of the Royal Economic Society (UK) and an elected
member of the Società Italiana degli Economisti.
Sashi Kumar is a journalist, filmmaker
and media entrepreneur. He founded the Media Development
Foundation, which runs the Asian College of Journalism,
the Asianet TV channel and statewide cable TV network
in Kerala, and Asiaville, a digital infotainment and
education venture. He was a producer and presenter
on Doordarshan, West Asia correspondent of The Hindu
and chief producer of PTI-TV. He scripted and directed
Kaya Taran, a movie based on the 1984 anti-Sikh riots
and has acted in a few feature films. His columns
‘Unmediated’ in Frontline form part of a book by the
same title, published in 2014.
Matías Torchinsky Landau is
a consultant at the United Nations Economic Commission
for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), Buenos
Aires. His research focuses on economic growth, international
trade and input–output analysis.
Lilia García Manrique is a
PhD scholar in economics at the University of Sussex.Previously,
she has worked as a research assistant at the Latin
American Facultyof Social Science (FLACSO).
Surajit Mazumdar is Professor of
Economics at the Centre for Economic Studies and Planning,
Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. He was also
on the faculty of Ambedkar University Delhi (AUD),
Institute for Studies in Industrial Development (ISID),
New Delhi and Hindu College, University of Delhi.
The focus of his research is on the Indian corporate
sector, industrialization and the impact of globalization
on the economy in India.
José Antonio Ocampo is Professor
of Professional Practice in International and Public
Affairs at the School of International and Public
Affairs, Columbia University. He is Chair of the Committee
for Development Policy of the United Nations Economic
and Social Council (ECOSOC) as well as of the Independent
Commission for the Reform of International Corporate
Taxation. He has occupied numerous positions at the
United Nations and in Colombia, including UN Under-
Secretary-General, Economic and Social Affairs; Executive
Secretary, ECLAC; Minister of Finance, Minister of
Agriculture, and Director of the National Planning
Office of Colombia; and member of the board of directors
of Banco de la República.
Prabhat Patnaik has taught at the
University of Cambridge, UK and at Jawaharlal Nehru
University, New Delhi, where he held the Sukhamoy
Chakravarty Chair at the time of his retirement and
is currently Professor Emeritus. His books include
Accumulation and Stability under Capitalism (1997),
The Value of Money (2009), Re-envisioning Socialism
(2011) and A Theory of Imperialism (co-authored with
Utsa Patnaik, 2016). His most recent book, Capital
and Imperialism: Theory, History, and the Present
(co-authored with Utsa Patnaik, 2021), is winner of
the Paul A. Baran–Paul M. Sweezy Memorial Award. He
is the Editor of the journal Social Scientist.
Utsa Patnaik is Professor Emeritus,
Centre for Economic Studies and Planning, Jawaharlal
Nehru University, New Delhi. Her main research interests
are the processes of transition from peasant-predominant
societies to industrial society; colonialism and imperialism;
and food security and poverty. Her books include Peasant
Class Differentiation (1987), The Long Transition
(1999), The Republic of Hunger (2007), A Theory of
Imperialism (co-authored with Prabhat Patnaik, 2016)
and Capital and Imperialism: Theory, History, and
the Present (co-authored with Prabhat Patnaik, 2021).
Pasuk Phongpaichit is Professor of
Economics, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok. She
has written widely on Thailand’s political economy,
history and literature. In 2017, she (with Chris Baker)
won the Fukuoka Grand Prize.
Alicia Puyana is full-time Professor of Economics
at FLACSO-MEXICO, and is a member of IDEAs, Oxford
Development and other academic boards. She has been
a visiting fellow at St Antony’s College, Oxford and
London School of Economics. Puyana is the author and
editor of books and articles on economic growth, economic
regional integration, oil economics and extractivism,
growth and inequality, ethnic and gender discrimination
in Latin America, and ethics in economics.
Vikas Rawal is Professor of Economics
at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. His research
has mainly focused on agrarian issues, food security
and employment. He has conducted field-based research
in many states of India. He has also worked on global
issues related to agriculture and food. His recent
book (co-edited with Dorian K. Navarro), The Global
Economy of Pulses, was published in 2019 by the Food
and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
(FAO).
Erik S. Reinert is Professor at the
Tallinn University of Technology and Honorary Professor
at University College London. Reinert holds an MBA
from Harvard University and a PhD in economics from
Cornell University. Much of his work is dedicated
to teaching and researching the theory and history
of uneven development. His book, How Rich Countries
got Rich and Why Poor Countries Stay Poor (2007),
has been translated into around twenty-five languages.
Abhijit Sen retired as Professor
of Economics at the Centre for Economic Studies and
Planning, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi.
He was a member of the Planning Commission for two
terms and chaired the Commission for Agricultural
Costs and Prices apart from many other high-level
committees of the Government of India. His work encompasses
macroeconomics, planning and development, and agricultural
economics. He is currently President of the Indian
Society of Agricultural Economics.
Jomo Kwame Sundaram is Senior Advisor
at the Khazanah Research Institute, Fellow of the
Academy of Science, Malaysia, and Emeritus Professor
at the University of Malaya. He is Founder-Chair,
IDEAs, and was Assistant Secretary- General for Economic
Development in the United Nations system from 2005
to 2015. He received the 2007 Leontief Prize for Advancing
the Frontiers of Economic Thought.
Erinç Yeldan is Professor
of Economics and Dean at Kadir Has University, Turkey.
He is one of the executive directors of IDEAs, and
serves as a member-elect of the International Resource
Panel of the United Nations Environment Programme
(UNEP). He is also a member-elect of the Science Academy
(Bilim Akademisi) in Turkey. Yeldan’s recent work
focuses on development macroeconomics, vulnerability
and fragmentation of labour markets, deindustrialization,
the economics of climate change, and on empirical,
dynamic general equilibrium models.
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