COVID-19: A health and economic disaster but also a natural experiment We’re sorry, this service is currently unavailable. Please try again later. Dismiss COVID-19: A health and economic disaster but also a natural experiment Normal text size Advertisement The coronavirus pandemic has delivered the world's economists a natural experiment which they are already using to work out how the past year will affect everything from the way we teach children to how best to stop emotionally drained consumers from stockpiling miles of toilet paper. While government policies have been tweaked in reaction to traditional data like job figures and payroll numbers, a surge in information is being used by the economics profession to look at both short and long term issues that are expected to flow from the pandemic and associated recession.