ABSTRACT
The chapter mainly highlights the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the global economy, utilizing macroeconomic concepts and describing how organizations around the world can use the strategic management technique of drawing up a PESTLE analysis to provide focused attention to each factor and macroeconomic party. This ultimately comprises the entire economy, with special attention being focused on the expansion of the environmental factor. The key problem discussed in the following research chapter was whether healthcare should be considered as a separate dimension under the environmental category in a PESTLE analysis. The methodology used involved gathering data from online journals relating to the relevant ministries of healthcare, and an extended review was conducted based on existing sources. The scenarios that unfolded as the pandemic first broke out, the policies imposed by the governments, and their shortcomings as policymakers were discussed, and the current day policies utilized to make sure the brunt of the pandemic doesn't boomerang again were analyzed. © 2023, IGI Global. All rights reserved.
ABSTRACT
The main objectives of this study are to take into account the effects of COVID-19 on labor market functioning, and to evaluate the effects of policies regarding working time reduction, in terms of both containing the spread of infection and economic activity. Accordingly, we describe a macroeconomic model wherein we test the effects of reducing working hours in the Keynesian unemployment framework, which comprises a fixed prices and wages regime, and a consumption demand that is dependent on salaries and autonomous demand components. Moreover, we also describe a neoclassical unemployment framework, wherein the labor market is only governed by dynamic demand forces. Theoretical results show that, according to the epidemiological phase, a reduction in working hours may be a good policy for containing the virus and improving employment in the Keynesian framework when established conditions are maintained. In the neoclassical framework, a work sharing policy will fail if some conditions do not occur, and it could cause an increase in the spread of the virus when a reduction of epidemic containment measures occurs. Employment will increase when the pandemic ends. A numerical simulation confirms that a reduction in working hours could reduce virus diffusion, but only under established, constrained parameters in both frameworks.