. 3 education at the same time, education is a further area that has been severely affected by the coronavirus crisis. most countries have temporarily closed schools and other educational establishments. at the peak, unesco data show 90 % of all school pupils being affected worldwide. even brief school closures can impair the acquisition of knowledge and the development of cognitive skills. [ 9 ] furthermore, learning less can also mean a lower income later on – for an entire lifetime. the world bank, for example, estimates that an assumed loss of half a year of ( quality adjusted ) school education could reduce the expected life income of the affected schoolchildren by 5 % on a global average. children in developing countries are likely to be suffering most. first, even under normal circumstances, they go to school for a considerably shorter period than in the developed nations. second, the facilities for remote learning are often much poorer. e - learning, in particular, is something that can be accessed only by parts of the population in developing countries. this also harbours the danger of economic inequality within countries becoming worse. in particular, there is a risk of young people from poorer families no longer being able to keep up in their classes, setting their sights lower, or even dropping out of school altogether. it is therefore vital to catch up on education worldwide and to continue motivating schoolchildren to go on learning. that could also necessitate higher spending on education. 2. 4 public finances above and beyond the pressing tasks we face, i envisage germany ’ s ﬁscal policy being confronted with three major challenges in the long term. first – and also foremost – it needs to support sustainable growth by promoting not only education but also digital transformation and the transition to a climate - neutral economy. second, the ﬁnancial costs of an ageing society need to be shouldered. and third, the government needs to once again ﬁnancially brace itself for future crises. i say this because, right now, we can see how important it is for governments to be capable of taking action. in the current crisis, it is largely ﬁscal policymakers who have been called upon to act, as they are the ones who can provide ﬁnancial support to people and businesses where it is needed – by https : / / www. bundesbank. de / en / press / speeches / the - potential - long - term - effects - of - the - coronavirus - crisis - on - the -

that duties distort the structure of production, thus reducing global trade overall. but a single large country might hope to gain an advantage if the trading partner lowers its export prices and thus ultimately bears the customs duty. it then pays for the trading partner, however, to reduce its losses by raising duties and preventing the shift in trade prices. this means that everyone is worse off in the end. in actual fact, analyses suggest that there are only losers in the trade conﬂict between the united states and china. they indicate that chinese suppliers are not prepared to make major price concessions, which is why us ﬁrms and consumers had to the bear the main burden of the duties. [ 6 ] nor was the reduction in bilateral trade ﬂows offset to a signiﬁcant extent by more trade with other partners. a bundesbank study looked in vain for who had the “ last laugh ” in this conﬂict, for example. [ 7 ] instead, the dispute led worldwide to greater uncertainty, and dampened the propensity to invest and trade. and even leaving aside such uncertainty effects, bundesbank analyses highlight the potential harm : if the duties remain in place, the size of the us and chinese economies would shrink by up to ½ % ; the size of the global economy would shrink by ¼ % overall. https : / / www. bundesbank. de / en / press / speeches / the - potential - long - term - effects - of - the - coronavirus - crisis - on - the - economy - and - on - monetary - policy - 855 … 4 / 14 12 / 21 / 2020 the potential long - term effects of the coronavirus crisis on the economy and on monetary policy | deutsche bundesbank this shows how important it is to keep markets open or make them more open. on the other hand, in globalisation, too, there are not just winners. it is true that, taken as a whole, world trade and the international division of labour boost the prosperity of national economies. but not everyone beneﬁts alike. that is because there is a shift in relative prices and wages, jobs can be lost while new employment opportunities arise elsewhere. it is therefore, for one thing, important to alleviate social hardships with an appropriate transfer system. for another, education is key so that as many people as possible are able to beneﬁt from the opportunities afforded by open markets as well as new technologies. 2