Northwestern experts available on economic impact of coronavirus

In light of the historic Federal Reserve rate cut Tuesday -- and rumors of more cuts to come -- concerns about coronavirus/COVID-19 continue to impact the stock market, business operations and corporate decision-making. Three Northwestern University professors are available to comment on the overall impact of coronavirus on the economy. The experts below can be contacted by reaching out to Molly Lynch at 773-505-9719 or molly@lynchgrouponline.com.

 Phillip Braun is a clinical professor of finance and associate chair of the Finance Department at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern. He specializes in the study of emerging market economies and financial markets.

Professor Braun on the economic and market impact:

“U.S. companies need to plan for the possibility of a pandemic. It isn't clear yet what the implications will be, such as if layoffs will be needed. If this is a global pandemic, the economic impact will be far-reaching."

Sunil Chopra is the IBM Distinguished Professor of Operations Management at the Kellogg. His expertise is in operations management, logistics and distribution management, design of communication networks and design of distribution networks.

Professor Chopra on supply-chain impact:

“From a societal perspective, there is less of an issue when both demand and supply are hit because of the virus. For example, Apple has lost demand in China and also supply because of the virus. While Apple will suffer financially, this is better than losing demand without losing supply. Things are much worse in situations like masks where demand has gone up because of the virus (all over the world) while supply is further constrained because of the disrupted supply chains.”

Jorg Spenkuch is an associate professor of managerial economics and decision sciences at Kellogg. His expertise is in political economy, applied microeconomics and strategic behavior in collective decision-making.

Professor Spenkuch on a crisis management strategy

“We always recommend that companies develop decision protocols and procedures for potential crisis. With respect to a potential COVID-19 pandemic, executives should be asking themselves, how severe does the outbreak have to be for us to close (one of) our offices? Who decides that? Which employees are essential, who can stay home? If you haven’t already, my advice is to plan now for both the worst case as well as the most likely scenario; and for how to recover from the crisis once it's over.”