EARNCon Session: Stratification Economics: Policy Framework for a Post-COVID America

Speakers

• Kyle Moore (Moderator), Economic Policy Institute
• Dania Francis, University of Massachusetts Boston
• Rachel Marie Brooks Atkins, St. John’s University’s Tobin College of Business
• Brian Smedley, Urban Institute

Session Description

In a wealthy country like the United States, we collectively decide how healthy we want our population to be by deciding how we distribute our resources (up to and including the provision of health care), and how we distribute the costs of producing the goods and services that keep our economy running. Historically, these decisions have been made in ways that benefit wealthier White Americans, while the health consequences of production fall on poorer, Black, and brown communities. The pandemic underlined the facts that 1) our existing economic arrangements lead to worse inequality when crises occur, both economically and in public health, and 2) we can effectively reduce that inequality when we want to through the smart use of public policy. Both insights are present in the stratification economics and political economy of public health frameworks. Our discussion will highlight how these two approaches view the intersection of economic and public health outcomes, and how both can be brought together to design better policy in a post-COVID America.