Philippe Legrain

Two promising #COVID19 vaccines, with immigrants to thank for both. BioNTech/Pfizer vaccine has been developed by a Turkish migrant to Germany. Moderna was co-founded by Canadian biologist and Lebanese-born scientist and investor. So much for nativists who claim immigrants have nothing to contribute. Read my latest for Foreign Policy

How will society change after the coronavirus pandemic? The adoption of digital technologies has advanced in leaps and bounds, but it is still implausible that this spells the end of the office or the demise of business travel, let alone the decline of cities, which may rather become younger and more liveable. Perhaps the biggest question […]

It’s economically significant and politically beneficial, but it leaves the eurozone’s deeper problems unresolved. Read my latest for Project Syndicate

Eurozone finance ministers have finally agreed a package of measures to respond to the coronavirus crisis. But in the face of an unprecedented medical and economic emergency, it is inadequate. What the eurozone needs is a large, temporary coronavirus Marshall Plan, funded by common debt that the ECB would buy and hold for the foreseeable […]

As Europe faces an unprecedented coronavirus crisis that is so far hitting Italy and Spain particularly hard and is straining the EU to breaking point, an exceptional “corona bond” would provide the fiscal firepower to support stricken businesses and workers and demonstrate European solidarity. If not now, when? Read my latest for Brussels Times My […]

What might the coronavirus crisis entail for the future of globalisation? Philippe Legrain, founder of international think tank the Open Political Economy Network and a former economic adviser to the president of the European Commission, is not confident the current crisis will lead to any renewed commitment to globalization. He believes the international response has […]

Until recently, most policymakers and investors remained complacent about the potential economic impact of the coronavirus crisis. Now they realise that it is generating a global shock, which may be sharp—but which most still expect to be short. But what if the economic disruption has an enduring impact? Could the coronavirus pandemic even be the […]