Major disparities after the coronavirus crisis

We believe that the coronavirus crisis is going to generate significant and lasting disparities : First, between business sectors , some of which will be permanently weakened (probably traditional retail, cars, air transport, aerospace, industrial capital goods, construction, etc.) ; and some of them will return to strong growth (pharmaceuticals, e-commerce, payment methods, agri-food, personal services, IT and telecoms, renewable energies, etc.); Second, between groups of economic agents. The vast majority of employees on long-term contracts will have kept their jobs, but not those on short-term employment contracts; the young will struggle to enter the labour market after the crisis; many freelancers will have suffered greatly. This complicates the economic policy response (support for employment and investment), as policies must target the most vulnerable sectors of activity and categories of people, for which blanket policies are not very suitable. We illustrate these general points with the case of the euro zone.