Professor Andy Sumner joined the WIDER Webinar Series to discuss new research on COVID-19 in developing countries. The research reveals that up to 500 million people could be thrust into poverty due to the economic shock of COVID-19. With Arief Anshory Yusuf as discussant.

COVID-19: A long crisis or new normal in developing countries?

In his presentation Sumner will explore the question of how to balance the health and economic impacts in developing countries. In the Global South there is generally a lower proportion of the population at high risk (over 70 years), but also health systems are weaker.

What about lockdowns? Are they the only option, and would a lockdown work in high density urban areas or when people have no income and thus no food?

The discussant for this webinar will be Professor Arief Yusuf who will share insights from Indonesia’s experience.

UNU-WIDER Director, Kunal Sen will chair the event.

About the speakers

Andy Sumner is Professor of International Development at King’s College London. He is also Director of the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) Global Challenges Strategic Research Network on Global Poverty and Inequality Dynamics, and a Non-Resident Senior Fellow of UNU-WIDER. He also holds associate positions at the University of Oxford, the Center for Global Development, Washington DC, and at Padjadjaran University, Indonesia.

Sumner’s research focuses on economic development and distribution dynamics, in middle-income developing countries and Southeast Asia in particular. He has twenty years’ international research experience using both qualitative and quantitative methods and has published extensively, including twelve books and some fifty journal papers and book chapters.

Andy Sumner's presentation slides

Arief Anshory Yusuf is Professor of Economics at the Department of Economics, Padjadjaran University, Indonesia, Visiting Professor at Department of International Development of King’s College London,  Honorary Senior Lecturer at Crawford School of Public Policy of the Australian National University and a Non-resident Senior Research Fellow of UNU-WIDER.

His research focuses on the economic development, particularly on poverty and inequality as well as on the interlinkage between economy and the environment. He is also well-known for his expertise in economic modelling, particularly computable general equilibrium (CGE) modelling.

Arief Yusuf's presentation slides

WIDER Webinar series

The WIDER Webinar Series provides a platform to discuss COVID-19 and its effect on development and impact on the Global South. The webinars feature speakers renowned for their work on development issues, presenting new research on the implications they foresee of COVID-19.