The economy is largely paralyzed for the time being by the corona pandemic. Even if Austria is less affected by the tough measures taken early on, its economy is closely linked to that of other countries. Italy, the corona epicenter of Europe, is Austria's second most important trading partner, and the USA, which has also been hard hit, is our third most important trading partner. Even if the states have closed their borders for the time being, the economic consequences are limitless.

The President of the extremely influential Kiel Institute for the World Economy, Prof. Gabriel Felbermayr, therefore advocates Eurobonds ("Coronabonds") amounting to 1 trillion euros, primarily to support severely affected countries such as Italy. The politically responsible in Germany and Austria categorically reject this. Regardless of this, Felbermayr expects that the virus will simply make us poorer in Germany and Austria.

Prof. Felbermayr and Prof. Rudolf Winter-Ebmer, head of the Institute for Economics at Johannes Kepler University and an expert on labor market economics, are visiting Rector Meinhard Lukas.