本文选自《经济学人》6月20日刊文章。在福利国家，能够工作的人通常有两种途径获取收入，工作的工资或是失业救济金。但是在大流行中，出现了第三种情况——休假，休假中的员工既可以获得政府的补助，又免受被裁员的命运。这虽然可以降低失业率，但给政府造成很大财政负担，而且对一些夕阳产业的“僵尸企业”的资助，可能会削弱下一次复苏的活力。所以本文认为，政府应该进行有选择的援助，援助那些有长期独立发展前景。
选文精讲
An early analysis of furlough schemes
SINCE THE emergence of the welfare state, adults who want to work have generally found themselves in one of two positions: earning a wage from their job or receiving unemployment benefits. The pandemic has led many people to find themselves in a halfway stage—furlough. This often involves the state paying a large slice of employees’ wages so that firms can keep them on the payroll during the lockdown.
自从福利国家出现以来，想要工作的成年人通常发现自己处于两种职位中的一种：从工作中赚取工资或领取失业救济金。大流行让许多人发现自己处于中间状态——休假。在这种情况下，国家会支付员工很大一部分工资，这样企业就可以在封锁期间继续雇佣他们。How effective is this approach? A new paper by Morten Bennedsen of INSEAD business school in France and colleagues surveyed 8,781 Danish firms with anywhere between three and 2,000 employees. Around two-thirds of the firms said that the effect of the pandemic on their revenues had been negative, or very negative. Of those companies that had experienced a fall in revenues, the median decline was 35%.这种方法有多有效?法国INSEAD商学院的Morten Bennedsen和他的同事在一篇新论文中调查了8781家丹麦公司，这些公司的员工在3到2000人之间。约三分之二的公司表示，疫情对其营收造成不利影响，或非常不利。在那些经历了营收下降的公司中，降幅中值为35%。
