Fighting the Pandemic: Policy Plurality and Response Performance

This session will discuss the recent paper written by Suborna Barua, Rubaiyat Shaimom Chowdhury and Sonia Rezina, titled, "One year of fighting the Covid-19 Pandemic: An analysis of policy plurality and response performance of emerging economies".

The speaker for the Session: Suborna Barua

Abstract

Emerging economies face resource availability and allocation constraints in responding to the COVID-19 pandemic. Understanding the policy responses of emerging economies could offer insights about their ability to sustain downturns and lead the future global economy. We carry out a detailed examination of the policy responses using data from the International Monetary Fund’s Policy Tracker database for 25 selected emerging economies and evaluate them using a novel Intensity-Coverage framework at the world, regional, and income levels. Findings suggest that the portfolio and coverage of the policy tools adopted are larger despite limited resources, while having a bias toward fiscal stances. Poorer economies rely more on fiscal measures, unlike the richer ones.

About the speaker

Suborna Barua is Associate Professor of International Business at the University of Dhaka. He also works as a Sessional Lecturer at Federation University Australia and a part-time Research Fellow at Bangladesh Institute of Capital Market. With 15 years of blended experience in teaching, research and consulting, Dr. Barua regularly publishes top journals on finance, environment and sustainable development issues. His research and consultancies involve multinational corporations and development institutions including the World Bank and UNDP. Dr. Barua obtained his PhD from Federation University Australia and BBA and MBA in Finance from the University of Dhaka, Bangladesh.