By Kardelen Koldas ’15 Closed restaurants, deserted hotels, empty ski slopes. A service sector-induced recession was one of the many side effects of the pandemic. But if the right steps are taken, Maine’s economic recovery isn’t out of sight, a new Colby study found.
“We are forecasting a recovery in Maine, probably a little healthier than what some people are projecting,” said macroeconomist Michael Donihue ’79, Colby’s Herbert E. Wadsworth Professor of Economics, whose students forecasted Maine’s economic future by working through dozens of equations. “If we do get some sort of support from a fiscal policy on subsidies for small businesses and individuals, that’s going to help prop us up and return to more of a normal [economy], maybe quicker than other states.”