Dear fellow economists in Norway, 

We are in the midst of a crisis. Rarely have so many large-scale economic policy measures been needed to this extent. Rarely has independent advice from economists been as valuable as right now.

Our job as economists is to provide relevant analyses to the public and policy makers. We should start immediately.

This is a call for independent analyses of the Corona crisis, from economists’ point of view.

We are starting a platform for coordination, discussion, and dissemination of various independent analyses of the Corona crisis. We believe this platform will be useful for journalists, authorities, ministries (Health, Finance, Norges Bank, etc), as well as the newly established expert commission on COVID-19. They all look for relevant analyses. 

On this web page, we shall provide:

A short taxonomy of contributions we have in mind:

1.      Analyses of COVID-19’s effect on the economy, including health

2.      Analyses of economic policy responses to COVID-19.

3.      Discussions of principles and statistics needed for policy evaluation

To maximize public impact, our web page’s main language is Norwegian. But contributions in English are of course equally welcome. We will moderate and conduct (light) editing. 

Send your contributions to oslomacrogroup@gmail.com

Fellow economists, let us rise to the occasion and contribute to this dugnad!

Initiators: Annette Alstadsæter (NMBU), Torfinn Harding UiS), Edwin Leuven (UiO), Kjell Erik Lommerud (UiB), Katrine Løken (NHH), Espen R. Moen (BI), Gisle Natvik (BI), Oddbjørn Raaum (Frisch), Kjell Gunnar Salvanes (NHH), Kjetil Storesletten (UiO), Ragnar Torvik (NTNU), Fredrik Wulfsberg (OsloMet)