Comparing the US financing sources during World wars and pandemics (Spanish flu vs. COVID-19)
Informazioni aggiuntive
Autori
Beretta E.,
Colombo E.
Tipo
Articolo pubblicato in rivista scientifica
Anno
2023
Lingua
Inglese
Sommario
Our Letter centres around George J. Hall’s and Thomas Sargent’s article ‘Three world wars: fiscal-monetary consequences’ published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS) in 2022 and representing a study of the US financing sources spanning over a century. We expand the analysis of the US financing sources (taxes, bonds, money) to combat the world wars and COVID-19 by adding another crisis, namely the Spanish flu (1918–1920). We assess the fiscal-monetary comparability of wars and pandemics and investigate whether the finding that taxation was less used to combat COVID-19 (as compared to WWI/WWII) applies to a comparable disease. By replicating their methodology, we reconstruct the US financing sources to combat the Spanish flu and conclude that this pandemic was financed more similarly to WWI/WWII than to COVID-19. While our findings reconfirm – COVID-19 is an exception both when compared to WWI/WWII and to the Spanish flu –, we provide explanations for this different mix of financing sources. Future research could investigate whether the ‘war on COVID-19’ followed by that one in Ukraine might re-create overlapping crises as for WWI and the Spanish flu.
Parole chiave
COVID-19 pandemic, Financing sources, Spanish flu, United States, World wars
Periodico
Applied Economics Letters
Diffusione
Licenza
CC BY-NC-ND
Visibilità
Pubblico
Status open access
Hybrid
