MS in Applied Economics Program Director (MSAE), Aleksandar Tomic, moderated a panel discussion with leading economists from Europe, Asia, and Latin America on April 21, 2021. The discussion explored the economic changes the world has seen over the past year and examined what the panel of global economic experts anticipate happening in the coming months.

Dr. Tomic, who is also the Associate Dean for Strategy, Innovation and Technology, was joined by 

  • Dr. Nebojsa Stojcic, Associate Professor and Vice-Rector at the University of Dubrovnik, Croatia, and Visiting Professor, Staffordshire University in the UK 
  • Dr. Luis Carlos Reyes, Associate Professor Luis Carlos Reyes of Economics, Co Founder and Director of the Observatorio Fiscal  at the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana in Bogota, Colombia
  • Dr. Alvin P. Ang, Professor in the Department of Economics and Director of Ateneo Center for Economic Research and Development (ACERD) at the Ateneo de Manila University. 

Here are a few takeaways these experts shared during the event:

“Those who have been following the trends [IN THE EUROPEAN UNION] in recent decades suggest that it is finally time to come up with a joint policy response rather than an individual response from each country. European Union passed the highest financial stimulus recovery package of 2.3 trillion euros. Still, now we see many discussions about whether we need this intervention. There is nothing wrong with the previous approach of Europe trying to create free-market opportunities for all, but if you look at what the United States and China were doing, you can see that they were at the same time targeting emerging technological niches and growing by exploiting technological windows of opportunities.” – Dr. Nebojsa Stojcic

“The European Union has roughly 450 million people, and the United States has roughly 330 million people. Latin America is similar, yet, there is nothing remotely close to a unified policy for this area. Each country is its own little island, and the COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted each island’s problems, including the lack of a common policy.” – Dr. Luis Carlos Reyes

“Many developing countries cannot be given a good stimulus package because their debt profiles limit them. In Southeast Asia, Japan’s debt to GDP ratio is more than 200% of Singapore’s. We look at these figures and see that these countries cannot continue giving a stimulus package while others have the flexibility to give and are conscious of the repercussions. We know we can utilize stimulus packages to address the pandemic, but at the same time, many countries have gone more than 8% in deficit to GDP as of right now.” – Dr. Alvin P. Ang

Learn more about the global impact of COVID-19 on the economy by viewing the full panel discussion above. If the video does not play in the player below, please click here.