European Central Bank Photo: Michielverbeek / CC by-SA 4.0

As gender, education and political preferences affect the attitude to vaccination, why the central banks need to pay attention to the inequality and climate change and how to accelerate robotization with outdated infrastructure: the main thing in the blogs of economists.

The article was first published on the ECCON website

The race, gender, education and political addictions-all these characteristics significantly affect the readiness of people to vaccinate from the Covid-19, the study of the Financial Trust Index (FTI) BUTA School at the University of Chicago and the KELLLOL school, which is the PROMARket blog, has shown. The presidential administration Joe Biden expects that by the beginning of the fall of 2021, about 300 million Americans will be able to get vaccinated - that is, almost the entire population of the United States. But the FTI survey showed that almost every third (32% of respondents) is not ready to vaccinate, including 17.6% - not ready at all. Among the African -Americans and Latin American, the share of those who are not ready to vaccinate at all, higher - 21.3 and 22.7%, respectively, among the White - only 13.2%. The proportion of women who are ready to vaccinate on average 6.4% lower than men. Such differences are especially alarming, taking into account the fact that minorities and women suffered from pandemia much more, the authors note.

19.4% of republican respondents, 27% of independent and only 6.9% of democrats are not ready to be vaccinated at all. The readiness to vaccinate from Covid-19 also correlates with the level of education, the authors of the study established: so, among those who at least graduated from the college (that is, has a higher education at least the level of a specialist), the share of those who are exactly ready to vaccinate is almost 29%, among those who have incomplete higher or only secondary education-about 17%. Distrust of the vaccine is an acute problem for the country, as this slows down a return to normal life and restoration of the economy. The authorities need not only to provide a sufficient amount of vaccination of at least 70–85% of the population, but also to work to ensure that in all social groups the trust in the healthcare system is strengthened, and the risks of pandemia are perceived adequately, the authors conclude.

Central banks can no longer ignore the problems of inequality and climate change - contrary to fears about the loss of independence, is sure Barry Eichengrin, professor of Economics Berkeley and former IMF adviser. “Purists” insist that the Mandate of the Central Bank should remain extremely narrow so that new goals do not distract from the main task - inflation control, Eichengrin notes, but the main thing is that the expansion of the mandate does not lead to the loss of operating independence. In the traditional paradigm, the goals of the Central Bank are set clearly, easily measurable and achievable due to the available tools of monetary policy. But if the mandate expands, then the goals can become less defined and less realistic: with the help of monetary policy, it is hardly possible to influence the inequality or condition of the climate, so it will be more difficult to report on successes in these areas, and this will give opponents of the operating independence of central banks additional arguments. The fears of this kind are not soundly founded, but the inequality and climate change have already become existential problems and if the central bank continues to ignore them, they will be in more danger, Eichengrin believes. Its recommendation is to use monetary policy measures to control inflation and at the same time use regulatory powers to participate in overcoming more ambitious challenges.

In his opinion, in the arsenal of the largest central banks there are already tools that allow them to contribute to overcoming inequality and climatic problems. As part of the green agenda, they could expand the list of information that financial organizations are required to disclose, including the questions related to the climate, as well as tighten the requirements for capital and liquidity for financial institutions, in the portfolios of which there is a high share of assets with increased environmental or climatic risks. Such measures would help to make “dirty” investments less attractive.

And to help in the fight against inequality, the central banks can work on increasing financial inclusiveness, writes Eichengrin. Thus, the Fed’s mandate includes adequate access to a loan for low income families: the Fed delegated this liability to 12 federal reserve banks included in the federal reserve system, but additional coordination at the Federal Council of the Fed would help strengthen the effectiveness of these measures. The Council of the ECB, together with the national Central Banks of European countries, argues the FRS, reasoning Eichengrin, and also pay more attention to the problem of access to lending for representatives of minorities and vulnerable social groups.

The digitalization of public services contributes to the influx of foreign direct investments, confirmed a new study of the IMF, which its authors talk about on the organization’s blog. Get a passport or rights, pay tax, get information from state registers with one click or a swipe on the screen anywhere and anywhere-this opportunity has become especially important during the pandemic Covid-19. But the electronic government not only contributes to the growth of transparent and efficiency, but also makes the economy more attractive to investors, the analysis of the data of 178 economies for 2003-2018 testifies. The emergence of electronic public services stimulates a more active arrival of foreign direct investment in all economies, regardless of the level of their development, the results are stable taking into account the quality of institutions, corruption and political risks.

At the same time, such a dependence can further increase the global technological gap, increasing the lag of low-income economies and poorly developed information and communication infrastructure. So, according to the UN Electronic Government Index, half of 193 economies for which it is calculated, have a point below the average ID, and in Africa countries the average value of the index is three times lower than the average in the world. Global leaders in terms of development of digital public services - Denmark, South Korea and Estonia. However, many developing economies are actively working to ensure that the technological gap is reduced: so, only in 2020, Butan, Bangladesh and Cambodia managed to move from the category of countries with the average level of development of the digital government to the number of leaders among developing countries. In general, digital public services allow foreign investors to reduce business costs and thereby increase the expected profitability of investment, making them more and more attractive.

Outdated infrastructure can complicate automation, but manufacturers of machines and robots can adapt their developments: the editorial office of the World Economic Forum gives a striking example from the field of warehouse logistics. Many tasks that are now fulfilling numerous warehouse workers are more advisable to entrust robots - for example, monotonous and repeating or bearing risks for health and life. Automation of such jobs is also relevant for those countries that experience labor shortages as a whole, or for the deficiency of the labor market segments. But the problem is that warehouse premises were often built many years ago and without expensive reconstruction are unsuitable for many modern warehouse robots.

The Israeli company Bionichive has developed a Squid robot, which can not only autonomously move between the rows of shelves, but also thanks to special on -board sensors and machine learning technologies to climb on racks, moving goods weighing up to 16 kg. Robots are increasingly used in warehouses, and in many sectors they have already become familiar technology - for example, in food retail. The British online store of OCADO products, famous for swift robots in warehouses, already provides its technologies for other sector players-including in the United States.

Why is the central banks should be green