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The globalization of the COVID-19 pandemic and its economic impacts is set to run havoc across economies in the world, throwing many into recession and possibly depression. The aim of this paper is to provide an overall understanding of the likely macroeconomic shocks of the pandemic on a diverse range of economic activities and indicators across economies. The paper covers implications to demand, supply, supply chain, trade, investment, price level, exchange rates, and financial stability and risk, growth, and international cooperation. The paper combines a unique theoretical impact mapping and supplements it with emerging evidence to develop the impacts' likely progression and span. Furthermore, the paper uses a standard Aggregate Demand and Aggregate Supply (AD-AS) model of macroeconomics to explain the likely growth effects arising out of essential and non-essential goods markets and outlines necessary features policy responses should consider. Data and information to analyze the impacts are assimilated from different sources, including news and media publications, the OECD, and IHS Markit-CIPS. Assessments of this paper suggest that many economies are about to see a period of stagflation driven by demand and supply slump, increased unemployment, deflationary pressure, reduced trade flows, and disruptions in the supply chain, which may result in a recessionary period if not acted fast with innovative policy responses. As almost all economies are badly affected, a global growth recession is imminent if the pandemic continues. However, based on past experience of pandemics and epidemics and the current evidence, a U-shaped recovery pattern is the most optimistic possibility for most countries and the world economy. The paper could help policy-makers in understanding the pandemic's broad-based impacts and policy needs to fight the imminent economic damage. Particularly, assessments with respect to the essential and non-essential goods markets could provide useful insights in designing appropriate policy responses to fight the pandemic. All considered, the paper calls for a collective and globalized response alongside standalone policy responses undertaken by individual economies. The assessments are broadly in line with the limited literature available on macroeconomic implications of CVODI-19 and could serve as a basis for advanced analysis on COVID-19 economics. JEL Classifications: F40, I15, E1, E6 Keywords: COVID-19, coronavirus, coronanomics, pandemic, economic impacts Corresponding Author's Email Address: sbarua@du.ac.bd, INTRODUCTION The outbreak of the novel coronavirus, termed as COVID-19 (also known as SARS-CoV-2) by the World Health Organization (WHO), is declared a pandemic by the WHO. The rapid 'globalization' [...]

Non-life insurance companies are an important part of the financial system in any country. Constant development and financial sustainability of these institutions is key to foster the rapidly growing economic activities of emerging economies like Bangladesh. This study made an attempt to establish the impact of different firm-specific factors on profitability using the non-life insurance sector in Bangladesh. A thriving insurance industry, especially in the nonlife sector, can accelerate economic growth by mobilizing large funds and providing risk-hedging services to economic activities. This paper investigates the temporary and permanent impact of different firm-specific factors on financial performance, using the case of the nonlife insurance sector in Bangladesh: one of the fastest growing economies in the world. Using panel data on 16 non-life insurance companies from 1999 to 2014, this paper utilizes both Static Panel Data (SPD) and Dynamic Panel Data (DPD) estimation techniques. For DPD estimation, a Pooled Mean Group (PMG) estimator built on an ARDL Framework that can produce short run and long run impacts separately has been employed. In addition to the average impact generated from static estimations, this paper identifies the significant impact of all variables on profitability in the long-term (those of a permanent nature) while the investment ratio shows some impact in the short-term (those of a temporary nature). The results of the study indicate that the average impact is predominantly derived from the long-term and thus appear to be permanent in nature. Moreover, investment ratio contributes positively to profitability, mostly in the short-term (temporarily) with some effects in the long-term. The findings on liquidity and investment ratio suggest the permanent nature of their impact on profitability in the long-term and, hence, insurers are probably better served investing funds in short-term opportunities (e.g. investing in securities) rather than in long-term ones. Lastly, the empirical results regarding the impact of leverage is not clear, as it shows mixed impact in two different estimations, including the permanent nature of negative impact in the long-term. The non-life insurance companies of Bangladesh should implement strong policies to reduce the faulty underwriting procedures to improve the profitability. This paper offers significant contributions to the literature by separately identifying the 'temporary' and 'permanent' impact of several determinants, thereby producing novel estimations for Bangladesh that may have implications for other emerging economies., JEL Classifications: C23, G20, G22 Keywords: Non-life insurance, Financial performance, Loss ratio, Premium growth, Profitability INTRODUCTION Insurers, especially the non-life ones, play two major roles in economic activities: firstly by [...]

ABSTRACT Internationalization of banking institutions has been evident to a greater extent recently due to the advancement of technology and increased global inter-connectedness of the business world. As the 'engine [...]