How financial markets profited from the pandemic: the case of Brazilian income relief policies - with Professor Lena Lavinas

The coronavirus pandemic has accelerated structural shifts in how social policy and economic policy intersect. New forms of state intervention are reshaping social reproduction. Social policies such as cash transfers and basic income schemes have become wrapped up with household debt management. Is post-pandemic recovery becoming all about restoring households' capacity to take on more debt?

About the speaker

Lena Lavinas is Professor of Welfare Economics at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro and is currently the Leverhulme Visiting Professor at the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London. Among her many publications are The Takeover of Social Policy by Financialization: The Brazilian Paradox (Palgrave Macmillan, 2017), and A Moment of Equality for Latin America? Challenges for Redistribution (Ashgate, 2015).