Uncertainty before and during COVID-19: A survey.

This survey features three parts. The first one reviews the most recent literature on the relationship between domestic (i.e., country-specific) uncertainty and the business cycle, and offers ten main takeaways. The second part surveys contributions to the fast-growing strand of the literature that focuses on the macroeconomic effects of uncertainty spillovers and global uncertainty. The last part presents contributions on the role played by uncertainty during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The global effects of Covid-19-induced uncertainty.

We estimate a VAR with world-level variables to simulate the effects of the Covid-19 outbreak-related uncertainty shock. We find a peak (cumulative over one year) negative response of world output of 1.6% (14%).