Noble Prize-winning economist Robert Shiller says urban home prices could decline as the coronavirus pandemic upends the workforce. He thinks the benefits of city living, such as restaurants, museums or theater shows, have been put into question during the coronavirus pandemic. Shiller is hopeful that inequality will get better in the short run and thinks the emerging "wartime spirit," like the one from the 1930s, could lead to positive changes for Americans. He also offers suggestions on how students and workers should prepare for jobs in an uncertain future.
Robert Shiller is an American economist, academic, and best-selling author. He currently serves as a Sterling Professor of Economics at Yale University and is a fellow at the Yale School of Management's International Center for Finance. Mr. Shiller has been a research associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) since 1980, was Vice President of the American Economic Association in 2005, and President of the Eastern Economic Association for 2006-2007. He is also the co founder and chief economist of the investment management firm MacroMarkets LLC. Shiller has received the Nobel Prize in Economics and is ranked among the 100 most influential economists of the world. He has authored seven books, including Animal Spirits, Irrational Exuberance, and his latest work published in 2015, Phishing for Phools: The Economics of Manipulation and Deception.