Introduction

The Australian economy has been hit hard by the COVID‐19 shock. Lockdowns, social distancing and self‐imposed restrictions have represented a sad novelty since March 2020. As a consequence, many businesses have suffered in an unprecedented fashion. It is unclear how long this will last—as a matter of fact, while I am writing this Introduction to the September 2020 Policy forum of the Australian Economic Review, Premier of Victoria, Dan Andrews, has just declared a State of Disaster and imposed Stage 4 restrictions in an attempt to bring down the hard‐to‐reduce number of residents affected by the coronavirus. What does this mean for the Australian economy? What can we do to limit the business cycle costs due to the pandemic? This Policy Forum collects three pieces that address aspects of these questions.