Ricardo Hausmann for Project Syndicate

Suppose you knew that a hurricane was coming, but meteorologists were uncertain if it would make landfall as a Category 2 or a Category 5 storm. Which scenario should you prepare for?

The problem you face reflects the costs of assuming that it is a Category 5 when it is only a Category 2 and vice versa. The latter scenario implies deaths and destruction that could have been avoided through evacuations, well-supplied shelters, and precautionary shutdowns. The first scenario implies unnecessary preventive costs. In the...

Ricardo Hausmann in Bloomberg

The meltdown in oil markets is turning back the economic clock for Saudi Arabia, putting it on track for the deepest contraction in two decades.

Already under lockdown to contain the spread of the coronavirus pandemic, the world’s largest crude exporter is bracing for a second impact from the oil rout and unprecedented production cuts negotiated by OPEC and its allies. Both will slash government revenue, and in turn derail a fragile economic recovery. Brent crude traded at under $19 a barrel on Tuesday -- a quarter of the level...

Ricardo Hausmann in Nature

Like many nations, India does not have enough kits to test most of its population for the new coronavirus. The country is instead relying on people power: thousands of health-care workers are fanning out across the country to trace and quarantine people who might have had contact with those with COVID-19. People are typically only tested if they develop symptoms.

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However, further lockdowns could have dire consequences. Strict social-distancing measures mean that people must stay at home, so many cannot work —...

Ricardo Hausmann in Financial Times

Governments are fighting to keep the coronavirus pandemic at bay and their economies afloat

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Still, Ricardo Hausmann, a Venezuelan development economist at Harvard University, is not holding out great hope. “The situation in the advanced economies is likely to be much more benign than what developing countries are facing.”

Mr Hausmann says developing economies have been left in the lurch both in terms of their ability to fight the pandemic and to counter its economic impact. Even in the best of times...