Save the date: Wednesday, July 15, 2020 live on Zoom: COVID-19 – will economy and society survive a second wave? Interview with Nobel laureate Paul Romer

ATTENTION: DATE and TIME of the interview HAVE CHANGED!

It will take place on July 15th at 19:00 CEST (Vienna, Zurich), 1:00pm EDT (Boston, New York), 10:00am PDT (Los Angeles, Seattle), 6:00pm BST (London), 22:30 IST (Bangalore).

As early as last April, US economist and Nobel Prize winner Paul Romer drew up a 10-page paper on how economic activity could be relaunched before an effective vaccine for the COVID-19 is available. Its central motto is clear: Testing, testing, testing.

By following this strategy, infected people can be identified and isolated from the healthy population, so that everyday restrictions are as low as possible and healthy people can pursue their normal economic and social activities.

Today – barely two months later – the number of new infections is increasing exponentially in the U.S. Whether this is the feared second wave, or just the continuation of the first one after a temporary lull is unclear, but that hardly matters. The combination of ineffective political leadership with the poor adherence to essential protective behaviors such as wearing mouth-nose protection masks, the outlook for the next six months is bleak: But also in other parts of the world, where the number of new infections has fallen a great deal from earlier peaks and seems to be stable, a second wave is a very real possibility. Can society and the economy cope with a second wave at all? How can a second general lockdown be avoided? And how can Paul Romer’s demands for randomized COVID-19 tests be given sufficient hearing?

In the digital, online joint meet-up of the Global Behavioral Economics Network (Collaboration between VBEN & ZBEN) on July 15, 2020, Nobel prize winner Paul Romer will talk in an interview with Professor Dr. Nora Szech, Chair of Political Economy, at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, about the topic “COVID-19 – will economy and society survive a second wave? And: How you will profit from proper testing! Interview with Nobel laureate Paul Romer.”

We look forward to this exciting talk and to seeing you there: Please use the following link

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87411705160?pwd=cElGMjJpZlJNclVORU9zazNJY2dnUT09

to join the zoom meeting on July 15th at 1:00pm EDT (Boston, New York), 10:00am PDT (Los Angeles, Seattle), 19:00 CEST (Vienna, Zurich), 6:00pm BST (London), 22:30 IST (Bangalore).

Save the meeting in your calendar so that you don’t miss this unique event!