lockdown

A chalkboard with 'tax time' written on it.

4 tax tips for small businesses to consider before lodging their tax return

30 Jun 2020

A UNSW tax expert explains how small businesses can make the most of their tax return if they’ve worked from home during the pandemic.

A man looking at empty shelves in the toilet paper aisle.

Panic buying strikes again over fears of a second wave

26 Jun 2020

Panic buying toilet paper is a quick mental fix that makes people feel more prepared and less anxious, says a UNSW consumer behaviour expert.

Vaccine or no vaccine, there’s no returning to the pre-COVID-19 world

12 Jun 2020

It has been described as a once-in-a-century pandemic, but COVID-19 will cause a permanent shift in the way the world operates at the social, political and economic level.

Lockdowns, second waves and burn outs. Spanish flu's clues about how coronavirus might play out

25 May 2020

There are many similarities between Spanish flu and coronavirus, from school closures to mask debates. The story of 1919 also shows governments face choices that can have a terrible cost in lives.

The costs of the shutdown are overestimated — they're outweighed by its $1 trillion benefit

18 May 2020

A realistic estimate of the economic costs of a two-year lockdown amounts to $90 billion. The benefit in lives saved amounts to around $1.1 trillion.

The problem during lockdown is that not just a few products per expenditure category are missing when calculating the Consumer Price Index – it can be the entire expenditure category itself. Photo: Shutterstock

What happens to inflation when we cannot buy goods during a lockdown?

15 May 2020

When products are unavailable in a lockdown, consumption growth will be overstated and changes in the cost of living will be underestimated.

COVID lockdowns have human costs as well as benefits. It's time to consider both

01 May 2020

We've prevented many deaths, many of them at the cost of other deaths. The accounting ought to be made clear.