Tackling the COVID-19 crisis collaboratively

This weekend was a little bit different for me. I signed up for the COVID-19 Policy Hackathon organised by the Stanford University Economics Association, the MIT Undergraduate Economics Association, and the Business Association of Stanford Entrepreneurial Students. This was a collaborative exercise in which you teamed up with people from all over the world to come up with policy proposals. The proposals had to be aimed at addressing pressing social issues caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

My team's policy memo can be found here. We proposed an ammendment to the CARES Act to help the Navajo nation combat the crisis more effectively. The Navajo nation (Arizona, Utah, New Mexico) has an alarmingly high infection rate (see US map) and, as of June 14, 311 deaths out of a population of just under 200,000. There were lots of excellent proposals coming from other teams. One of them that's particularly clever is this one by team 75.

I'm so grateful for this amazing opportunity. Perhaps the best part of it was being assigned to the most wonderful team of all. All my admiration to Diane Zhang, Emily Liu, Stephanie Guiliano and Michael McVerry. Thanks for being so patient with me guys and for showing me what top policy analysis looks like!

Monument Valley, Navajo nation. Source.

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