Clemens Fuest and Daniel Groß on a cost brake during the lockdown
“How can we ensure that businesses can open where the highest value is created, while maintaining health protection? Instead of closing hotels and restaurants across the board and keeping shops open, it would be possible to achieve the same health protection at lower overall economic costs through a flexible closure subsidy. Our suggestion would be: In principle, all businesses may open, taking into account the usual hygiene concepts. However, the state offers businesses that are willing to close a monthly subsidy that is based on the size of the business, for example on the square footage in retail or in the catering industry. The amount of the subsidy is determined as follows. Each business offers the state a subsidy amount for which it is willing to close. The companies that ask for the least for the closure are given the opportunity. The state distributes as many closure subsidies as are necessary to achieve the extent of closures necessary for health protection.”
– Clemens Fuest, President of the Munich Ifo Institute and Daniel Gros, member of the Brussels think tank CEPS, in “Cost brake for the lockdown” (- Hotels, restaurants, theaters and opera houses must close in the second Corona wave. Clemens Fuest and Daniel Gros have a concept that would save the state and the economy a lot – with the same health protection), guest commentary in Handelsblatt, Thursday, December 3, 2020, No. 235
