Consumer policy and the corona pandemicReflections and recommendations from ConPolicy in the context of the corona pandemic

The implications and consequences of the corona pandemic are also of great concern for ConPolicy. Thus, in addition to the regular project implementation, we have asked ourselves what implications and lessons can be drawn from the corona pandemic for consumer policy and research. To answer this question, we organized an internal virtual hackathon. The results of this hackathon include a corona pandemic consumer policy radar, a behavioral science-inspired discussion paper on social distancing including an explanatory video and a checklist on how to successfully implement virtual workshops.

We hope that these considerations will broaden your view of consumer policy issues and provide you with specific assistance. All these documents are to be understood as interim results and impulses for discussion in a daily changing environment. We have also experimented with new formats of knowledge transfer. – We look forward to exchanging ideas with you and are looking forward to your remarks!

Our theme radar: Questions that the corona pandemic raises for consumer policy

The Corona pandemic raises a number of challenges and issues for consumer policy. These include, firstly, measures for the acute control of the pandemic. Secondly, the consequences of the shutdown for consumers and thirdly, long-term consequences, for example with regard to sustainable development and digitization.

In the following infographic, we summarize the most relevant topics and issues from our point of view at the present time.

Discussion paper: Social distancing in the light of behavioral science

Social distancing measures are one of the essential interventions to slow down the spread of the coronavirus Sars-CoV-2. However, the acceptance of these measures may suffer the longer they have to be maintained. In our discussion contributions, we show to what extent it is worthwhile to consider behavioral science findings in the design and communication of social distancing measures.

On the one hand, our statements are found in a conventional ConPolicy discussion paper. On the other hand, Dr Annette Cerulli-Harms and Dr Julius Rauber summarize the main contents of the paper in an explanatory video ­– a novelty at ConPolicy.

Checklist: Successfully implementing virtual workshops

One effect of the Corona pandemic is that workshops with external experts and stakeholders, for example, can no longer be held in a conventional physical format for the time being. Instead, they must be implemented in a virtual form. This is certainly possible, but a number of success factors must be taken into account.

In our "Checklist: Successfully Implementing Virtual Workshops" you will find key aspects that you should consider when organizing and conducting virtual workshops. We will be happy to advise you for further support with regard to conception and implementation of virtual event formats!