Welcome to the website for the WEA conference
The Great Lockdown: An Interpretative Attempt

Although the usual discussion forum did not take place for this conference, a discussion of the issues between Simone Fari (University of Granada) and Mauricio Dias (University of Lisbon), with conference organiser Maria Alejandra Madi as the Moderator, was recorded and is available on this website.

DISCUSSION WITH AUTHORS

Conference leaders: Carmelo Ferlito and Maria Alejandra Madi 

This conference is in cooperation with the

Center for Market Education

Aims of the conference 

The advent of the global Covid-19 crisis created new challenges for businesses, workers, and policymakers. Their outcomes have transforming implications for all countries, industries, businesses of all sizes, and societies. The Covid-19 twin economic and health crises call for a deep reflection on the forces that will shape the future of the global economy.

In fact the outbreak of Covid-19 and the lockdown policies imposed worldwide generated a global economic crisis which challenges the traditional explanations of economic downturns and the way we are used to understanding and handling business cycles.

This WEA Conference, organized in cooperation with the Center for Market Education (CME, ) and led by Dr Carmelo Ferlito and Prof Dr Maria Alejandra Madi, aims to discuss recent contributions to the understanding of the Covid-19 economic crisis and its “lockdown” governance in terms of its consequences for policy making, business trends and social challenges. The conference also focuses on bridging the gap between different economic theoretical approaches and the practical applications of economic theories in a pluralist approach. 

Topics include (but are not limited to):

  • The diversity of responses to the global Covid-19 crisis.
  • The Great Lockdown and economic theoretical approaches: advances and challenges. 
  • Economics and epidemiology: the twin economic and health crises in retrospect and today.
  • Time Series Data & Data for Prediction in Economics: conceptualization the “normal”.
  • The impact of the Great Lockdown on business transformations, competition and economic growth. 
  • The Great Lockdown and the digital economy: the acceleration of disruptive innovations. 
  • The Great Lockdown and social inequality: labour, migration, gender and food challenges.
  • Geopolitical outcomes of the Great Lockdown.
  • Building resilience: rethinking economic theories and instruments.
  • The Great Lockdown and the role of experts.
  • Facing a community crisis: centralized vs decentralized answers.
  • Autarkic answers vs free trade policies. 

For complete, general guidelines about WEA Online Conferences, please see 
https://www.worldeconomicsassociation.org/conferences/guidelines/

Contacts

Carmelo Ferlito and Maria Alejandra Madi 

Guide for first time visitors

Openness and flexibility are major trends in contemporary education, research, and business, influencing the whole spectrum of institutions and corporations across the globe. Indeed, technological innovations are bringing about a paradigm shift in contemporary livelihoods. Modes of interaction are becoming more open and flexible in terms of time, space, organization, infrastructure and requirements. With this background, the World Economics Association organizes conferences which are held on-line.

WEA CONFERENCES are OPEN ACCESS. The World Economics Association strives to make its conferences accessible for all people around the world. The aim of the WEA ONLINE CONFERENCES is to enlarge the number of participants and to extend the period of discussion to provide for more developed exchanges than in typical, location-based conferences.  WEA Conferences strive to be on the forefront of innovations in communicating and discussing high-quality research.

Each WEA CONFERENCE begins with a pre-conference stage with the announcement of the call, registration and selection of papers, culminating in a Discussion Forum. The interactive format of Conferences provide an online forum for visitors and commentators. All participants will be able to send comments on specific papers, or to contribute to a general discussion on the conference theme.

Each WEA ONLINE CONFERENCE is hosted by Maria Alejandra Madi, Chair of the WEA CONFERENCES. She selects the conference themes and Leaders with the expertise in the topic, and facilitates the process of the conference organization as well as the follow-up activities. The initial format of the WEA CONFERENCES was developed by Grazia Ietto-Gillies, whose ideas have continued to guide the current WEA CONFERENCES organizing team.

For more details visit our Frequently Asked Questions page ›