[Social Science Research Network] Digital Finance & The COVID-19 Crisis

Social Science Research Network, April 16 2020

Douglas W. Arner, Janos Nathan Barberis, Julia Walker, Ross P. Buckley, Andrew M. Dahdal, Dirk A. Zetzsche

Highlights:

• Examines how the digital financial infrastructure that emerged in the wake of the 2008 Global Financial Crisis is being, and can be, leveraged to overcome the immediate challenges presented by the pandemic and manage the impending economic fallout.
• Strategies to address financial aspects of the crisis in order to reduce the economic and human impact include: heavy, temporary financial support for individuals; for small, medium and large enterprises to avoid loss of infrastructure and preserve the capacity for an orchestrated response
• For governments: leveraging digital finance and payments to reduce human-to-human contact, while organizing support for the elderly and other digitally excluded people who would normally use physical channels
• Digitization of financial services in the last decade offers alternative and more direct means by which it may be possible to stimulate the real economy, which will be critical in mitigating the economic impacts and maintaining social cohesion.

Read full text