
Narrative Economics and COVID-19 | Markus' Academy | Ep. 30
Follow the link for the full summary: https://markusacademy.substack.com/p/narrative-economics-and-covid-19 Link to sign up for the webinar series: https://markusacademy.substack.com/ On July 10, 2020, Robert J. Shiller joined Markus' Academy for a discussion of narrative economics in light of the COVID-19 epidemic. Shiller is a Professor of Economics at Yale University and a 2013 recipient of the Nobel Prize in Economics. Download the slides here. Timestamps: Markus Brunnermeier introduction: 0:00Beginning of Shiller presentation: 13:42JSTOR counts of word “narrative” as percent of all articles, by discipline: 17:17Volatility of financial market: 18:22Long time-series on home prices: 19:39Learning from medical epidemiology: 21:19Kermack- McKendrick SIR disease epidemic model: 23:33Flattening the curve: 27:20Epidemics in waves: 27:52Mutations (in virus, narratives) can cause waves of epidemic: 29:06Examples of narrative epidemics: 30:34Percent of articles that mention the “Great Depression” each year: 36:00Technological unemployment: 37:26The future of narrative economics: 39:33Q&A: 41:08 Highlights: Our social world is driven by narratives. Narratives can spread like epidemics. “Most people do not respond to analytic discussion,” Shiller said. “They like stories.” There are lessons for narratives in the “epidemic curve,” which rises and falls like a bell-shaped curve. Importantly, the contagion rate of stories may increase as the effectiveness of the storytelling improves (more details, etc.). Narratives about economics drive both big events and individual behavior during those events. As stories spread, ideas can go viral and move markets. We saw this during the Great Depression and other financial crises. After the 2008-2009 crisis, the market crashed but came back strong. One reason for the rally was that a strong narrative about “not losing out on the rise” led many investors to stay in the market when they otherwise might have left. It’s difficult to predict how narratives will spread, but studying them can help us prepare for and respond to economic crises. Despite availability of digitized text, it’s still difficult to track popularity of narratives. Shiller says we should start collecting information on economic narratives now.