The crisis and after: the contributions of academic research

Unfortunately, the Covid-19 pandemic continues to plague the world. For more than a year, this virus, which was initially unknown, has infected more than 130 million people, more than 3 million of whom have died. And Europe is the second most affected area. With the appearance of more contagious and virulent variants of the virus, the end of the crisis is delayed and will only be possible after massive vaccination of the populations. On this point, Europe is lagging behind by a few months, forcing some countries including France to adopt additional restrictive measures to curb the circulation of the virus.

Beyond this worrying health situation, the economy, which remains one of the pillars of our modern societies and the basis for wealth creation, shows contrasting faces. The losses are significant and many sectors will struggle to recover, despite strong government support. Some will disappear, others will have to reinvent themselves and constantly innovate to maintain themselves. The balance will be delicate to find, the American, European and Asian continents will each play their part, which is already one of the problems to be integrated even before the end of the crisis.

To succeed in emerging from the top, the mobilization of academic research is more useful than ever and necessary to support and guide public authorities in their difficult decisions. Since the start of the pandemic,
Many researchers from the Louis Bachelier Institute (ILB) network contribute to discussions within dedicated working groups or governmental or European authorities.

In addition, the last edition of the International Financial Risk International Forum, which we organized, allowed several dozen international researchers in economics and finance to present their work on Covid-19 and to draw valuable lessons from it.

This new edition of Cahiers Louis Bachelier deals precisely with the current economic situation and presents the most interesting research results. Thus, the first article looks back at some of the highlights of this high-ranking conference. The second text gives the floor to Christian Gollier, an eminent researcher in economics and finance, who gives his vision of the current crisis and in particular ideas on vaccine strategies to remedy it. The third article discusses work, co-carried out by Laurence Scialom, on banking supervision, which must be extended to take into account the extreme risks represented by pandemics and global warming. Finally, the last article deals with the debate about State aid combined with ecological constraints when businesses are saved thanks to public money.

Happy reading!

Jean-Michel Beacco,
General Delegate of the Louis Bachelier Institute

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