(WASHINGTON, D.C.) -- American University economists and business professors are available to discuss topics related to the economic fallout from the pandemic.

Nikki Blacksmith teaches management courses in the Kogod School of Business. She holds a Ph.D. in industrial-organizational psychology and can discuss how teams can work productively while teleworking and how the current experiment in widespread teleworking could reshape managers’ views on telework.

Caroline Bruckner is managing director of the Kogod Tax Policy Center. She can discuss COVID-19 and issues related to taxes, the Small Business Administration and gig economy workers.

Maria Floro is an economics professor and expert in the caregiver economy, the unpaid work of women who shoulder the major burden of care in the United States and across the world. With a three-year, $1.8 million grant from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, American University is leading a group of scholars from multiple disciplines to research caregivers and shed light on their work. Their goal is to eventually incorporate caregivers into macroeconomic models used for assessing policy impact on employment, gender inequality, and growth. Floro can discuss how the pandemic has brought front and center the caregiver economy’s role in a functioning market economy.  

Mary E. Hansen, professor of economics, can discuss impacts on personal finance, household debt, and bankruptcy; gendered impacts; child welfare; and historical precedents.

Bradley Hardy is an associate professor in the School of Public Affairs. His research focuses on poverty policy, labor economics, economic instability, intergenerational mobility, and socio-economic outcomes. He can discuss economic well-being and the effectiveness of the nation’s social safety net to address the crisis.

Ron Hill is a Kogod Business School professor who can discuss consumer psychology and purchasing trends. He can discuss how a rise in consumer vulnerability may permanently change the way we live.

Thomas Husted is a professor of economics whose research examines the political economy of various government expenditure programs and federal disaster aid. He can discuss state and local government responses to the coronavirus outbreak; how disaster declaration works; and state governments' response.

Miles Kahler, professor in the School of International Service, can comment on issues related to the economic effects of the coronavirus outbreak, particularly global supply chains, with the focus on Asia and Europe.

Gray Kimbrough is a microeconomist whose research focuses on commuting, time use, labor markets, labor force demographics, and generational differences. He can comment on variation in economic impacts on workers in the U.S. by education, income, family characteristics, and age. He can also discuss how these impacts and the lack of benefits, such as paid leave and health insurance, generate a particular need for immediate, direct assistance to those most affected. 

Patrick Malone is an executive-in-residence at the School of Public Affairs and the director of the American University’s Key Executive Leadership Programs. His research encompasses the field of public service leadership, ethics, organizational behavior, and public administration and policy. In the context of COVID-19, Malone can discuss the issue of trust in the virtual workspace and the best ways to deliver effective remote programming at a time of detachment, quarantine, and isolation.  

Ayman Omar, associate professor, Kogod School of Business, can discuss the impacts of the pandemic on global supply chain management.

Arturo Porzecanski, distinguished economist in residence, is an expert in international finance, emerging markets, and Latin American economics.
Gabriel Mathy, assistant professor of economics, specializes in economic history and can discuss how the pandemic will cause what is likely the world's first services recession. 

Kara Reynolds, professor of economics, can discuss the impact of the pandemic on global trade.  

Jay Simon is an associate professor in the Kogod School of Business who can comment on decision analysis and how altruism plays a role in how people and managers make decisions that can benefit the collective over the individual. Simon can comment on how altruistic thinking in decision making; for example, shuttered organizations that chose to continue to pay employees wages in lieu of layoffs.