by Fuqua School of Business — December 22, 2020 .
DURHAM – Celebrating a new year might provide a momentary respite, but 2021 will offer many of the same concerns corporate financial officers faced in 2020, including productivity challenges, a remote workforce and pressure from markets to put excess liquidity to work.
“Even if vaccines roll out smoothly and the economy substantially recovers from COVID during the first half of 2021, there are still several important issues for companies to navigate in 2021, including a new U.S. president, the threat of higher taxes, labor force decisions about who can work from home and what jobs can be automated, among other issues,” said John Graham, a finance professor at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business and director for The CFO Survey, a quarterly measure of CFO sentiment. “If there are any hitches in vaccine timing or efficacy, then there will be virus-related economic turmoil on top of these underlying issues.”