Lessons for the Age of Consequences: COVID-19 and the Macroeconomy

Comparative empirical evidence for 22 OECD countries shows that country differences in cumulative mortality impacts of SARS-CoV-2 are caused by weaknesses in public health competences, pre-existing variances in structural socio-economic and public health vulnerabilities, and the presence of fiscal constraints. Remarkably, the (fiscally non-constrained) U.S. and the U.K. stand out, as they experience mortality outcomes similar to those of fiscally-constrained countries. High COVID19 mortality in the U.S. and the U.K. is due to pre-existing socio-economic and public health vulnerabilities, created by the following macroeconomic policy errors: (a) a deadly emphasis on fiscal austerity (which diminished public health capacities, damaged public health and deepened inequalities);(b) an obsessive belief in a trade-off between ‘efficiency' and ‘equity', which is mostly used to justify extreme inequality;(c) a complicit endorsement by mainstream macro of the unchecked power over monetary and fiscal policy-making of global finance and the rentier class;and (d) an unhealthy aversion to raising taxes, which deceives the public about the necessity to raise taxes to counter the excessive liquidity preference of the rentiers and to realign the interests of finance and of the real economy. The paper concludes by outlining a few lessons for a saner macroeconomics.

Breastfeeding in emergencies with assessment of recent humanitarian crises and the Covid-19 pandemic.

The world is becoming a place where the number of emergencies and humanitarian crises is increasing rapidly due to economic inequality and the gap between developed and underdeveloped countries, as well as climate changes leading to disruption of the natural balance and development of natural disasters. The most vulnerable groups of the population including women and children always are affected by disasters. The younger the child, the more vulnerable he/she is, especially if not naturally fed or having a mother or parents. Various humanitarian organizations have been involved in a number of crises, with the World Health Organization and UNICEF and other United Nations-related organizations leading the way. In the care of mothers, infants and young children, most important is to ensure appropriate nutrition because otherwise it can result in life-threatening health conditions. The lack of protection, support and promotion of natural nutrition (breastfeeding) and its disruption and undermining by uncritical and uncontrolled donations and distribution of infant formula are the biggest challenge due to the lack of information of mothers, those who provide support in emergencies from both governmental and non-governmental sector, without cross-sectoral cooperation, thus causing uncoordinated and sometimes harmful interventions. Therefore, it is recommended that governments issue guidelines on infant and young child nutrition prior to the occurrence of an emergency, and crisis management regulations in which the issue of infant and young child nutrition will be given due consideration.Copyright © 2020 Croatian Paediatric Society. All rights reserved.

Economic Inequality during Covid-19 as a Pathway to Food Insecurity for People who are Disabled and Racialized as Non-White

Covid-19 heightened economic inequality across the U.S., especially for people who are disabled and non-white. These intersecting economic vulnerabilities open pathways to hunger. Using a survey from July 2020 (n = 2,043) in the Intermountain West, we find that economic inequality explained a substantial portion of food insecurity for people with disabilities. Racially stratified models show that people who were also non-white were more likely to be food insecure and receive differential protection from economic resources. Stronger social support will help mitigate food insecurity, yet such programs must grapple with the ways that ableism and racism intersect, especially during economic shock.Copyright © 2022 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

Cooperating for a better future

This document addresses what I consider to be the main problems in the world, although I recognize that there are other problems at the moment as well, such as inflation and the war in the Ukraine. I will try to address the main problems, which are of interest to CIRIEC, which is an international organization that pays special attention to what is called the Third Sector" or "Social Economy", an area that is located between the private business sector and the government even though I'm not, I must admit, an expert in the latter field. I'll deal with it in the context of discussing a couple of problems we're facing in the world that seem really important to me. The first problem is economic inequality, which I know something about. The second problem is climate change and environmental problems, which I think are the most important. I will also touch on at the end some problems related to the COVID pandemic. In all the problems, what we could call the Third Sector can play a great role.

Cooperating for a better future

This paper addresses what I consider to be the world's main problems, although I recognise that there are also other problems at present, such as inflation and the war in Ukraine. I will try to address the main problems, which are of interest to CIRIEC, which is an international organisation that pays particular attention to what is called the Third Sector” or "Social Economy”, an area that lies between the private business sector and the government despite I am not, I must admit, an expert in this last field. I will deal with it in the context of discussing a couple of problems we face in the world that I think are really important. The first problem is economic inequality, which I know something about. The second problem is climate change and environmental problems, which I think are the most important. I will also refer at the end to some problems related to the COVID pandemic. In all the problems, what we could call the Third Sector can play a big role. © 2022 CIRIEC-España

Covid-19, inequality and (paid) work-On the relevance of social class in the pandemic

This paper links the research on the impact of the Corona pandemic to the debate on the relevance of social class. Using a class analytic approach (Oesch-16) and based on a mixed-methods design with an employee survey and qualitative interviews from the early phase of the pandemic, the impact of Covid-19 on the world of work is examined in five thematic areas: Infection risks at the workplace, economic burdens, mobile working, working conditions, and reconciliation of paid work and child care. The results reveal pronounced vertical and horizontal class inequalities in the sphere of paid work, which partially also spill into the sphere of unpaid care work, and which are also present in the everyday experiences of many working people. The results highlight the importance of class for work experience in the pandemic, but also point to limitations of the explanatory power of class analytic perspectives in the sphere of care work. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved) (German) Der Beitrag verbindet die Forschung zu den Auswirkungen der Corona-Pandemie mit der Debatte uber die Relevanz sozialer Klasse. Mit einem klassenanalytischen Zugang (Oesch-16) und auf der Basis eines Mixed-Methods-Designs mit Erwerbstatigensurvey und qualitativen Interviews aus der Fruhphase der Pandemie werden die Auswirkungen von Covid-19 auf die Arbeitswelt in funf Themenfeldern untersucht: Infektionsrisiken am Arbeitsplatz, wirtschaftliche Lasten, mobiles Arbeiten, Arbeitsbedingungen sowie Vereinbarkeit von Erwerbsarbeit und Kinderbetreuung. Dabei zeigen sich im Bereich der Erwerbsarbeit ausgepragte vertikale und horizontale Klassenungleichheiten, die punktuell auch auf die Schnittstelle zur unbezahlten Sorgearbeit ausstrahlen und die zudem in den Alltagserfahrungen vieler Erwerbstatiger prasent sind. Die Ergebnisse verdeutlichen die Bedeutung der Klassenlage fur das Arbeitserleben in der Pandemie, verweisen jedoch auch auf Grenzen der Erklarungskraft klassenanalytischer Perspektiven. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)

Walking Together Indicator (WTI): Understanding and Measuring World Inequality

Socio-economic inequality may be addressed at a different scale. Its impact at a micro and macro level on very many social issues is well-known, as well as its effects on global development being extensively reported in literature, where inequality is often seen as a clear barrier on the path to a sustainable development. That becomes extremely critical in light of major global challenges, such as climate change. The quantification of inequality in the different contexts, its interpretation, as well as its impact on society at a different level are object of major interest and discussion within the scientific community. Inspired by the famous African proverb "if you want to go fast go alone;If you want to go far go together", we propose an indicator-Walking Together Indicator (WTI), based on a simple model to foster transparency and broad communication. It relies on the statistical standard deviation to facilitate the measurement of inequality looking at single metrics (e.g., GDP) as well as considering broad categories (e.g., Economy) composed of multiple indicators. Despite evident limitations, simplifications (context-less comparison among countries) and approximations (significant lack of data), the study conducted on well-known macro indicators presents a fundamental coherence in the result. Indeed, it shows a reducing inequality in the main trends. On the other side, the performed computations also point out a relevant exception for the main economic indicator, which is characterised, overall, by an increasing inequality among the considered countries. Such a contrasting trend is partially explainable looking at the simplifications in the model, which neither considers dependencies among indicators nor assumes weighting. The indicator provides a very encouraging and optimistic figure. However, the recent pandemic has shown a world running at different speeds. It advises a more conservative interpretation of the indicator as the exception related to economy is relevant.

Evolution of Pension System Financial Models for Sustainable Economic Growth

Sustainable accumulation of pension rights and increasing of income protection for individuals are central problems for any pension system. Public pension provision in the world practice usually has an earnings-related basis. At least one third of OECD countries has basic minimal pension provision, which depends on the socio-economic policy and financial health of the budgetary system. The development of financial and investment models of pension systems since the creation of the first prototype in Germany has been driven by changes in the gender and age structure of the population, globalization and rapid development of technology. The recession of 2008 and the COVID-19 crisis of 2020 highlighted the vulnerabilities of the global financial system and the risks to the financial stability of pension systems. Pension finances deteriorated during these crises due to lost contributions on wages, which have been mainly covered by state budgets. Automatic adjustment mechanisms in pensions are crucial to deal with the problem ageing. The aim of the study is to analyze the evolutionary vector of development of financial and investment models of pension provision, update and analyze risks for their future development, and justify ways to overcome these risks in the long term. The paper concludes that to adapt pension models to the current challenges of the global economy, it is necessary to improve the quality of public services in the field of social security and optimize the costs of their financing via increasing the quality of the public financial management. It is also necessary to use advantages of technological progress in order to minimize the threats of technological growth to pension systems caused by the industrial Revolution 4.0. This direction will require adaptation, effective adjustment of the financial mechanisms of pension systems, and even qualitative changes in the financing models of the pension system in the long term. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

RISE IN INCOME INEQUALITY BEFORE AND AFTER THE COVID-19 CRISIS IN ARGENTINA

This article examines inequality in income distribution in Argentina between 2014 and 2020 in a context of stagnation and economic crisis, which coincided with the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic. The determining factors of income distribution were analyzed based on a household survey, and a breakdown of the Gini coefficient was implemented to determine the factors that explained the increase in inequality. From a structuralist point of view, the retraction of formal employment, the expansion of the informal sector, and greater coverage of social protection policies were the central factors that explained the increased level of inequality at that time. Social transfers helped to mitigate inequality in the face of the Covid-19 pandemic. © The Author(s) 2022.

The Racial and Spatial Impacts of the Paycheck Protection Program

The Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), with spending of nearly $800 billion, was the largest component in the United States' economic response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The intention of the program was to provide emergency economic relief to small businesses and help them keep employees on their payroll. Critics of the PPP program feared that its reliance on private lending institutions would exacerbate racial and spatial injustice by mirroring existing inequalities in access to capital by race and across space. The authors compare PPP to existing residential and small business lending patterns, and test whether Black and Latinx neighborhoods were disadvantaged in receiving PPP loans. The authors find that majority Black and Latinx neighborhoods received disproportionately fewer PPP loans than majority White and Asian neighborhoods, but that policy changes during the third phase of the PPP resulted in better targeting of lending to lower-income areas, minority borrowers, and smaller businesses. © The Author(s) 2023.

COVID-19, the New Urban Crisis, and Cities: How COVID-19 Compounds the Influence of Economic Segregation and Inequality on Metropolitan Economic Performance

This paper examines the connection between measures of a U.S. metropolitan area's new urban crisis (i.e., unaffordable housing, economic inequality, and residential segregation) and its year-over-year employment change in the period immediately before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. Results show that measures of the new urban crisis did not generally have a statistically significant association with year-over-year employment change between January and September of 2020, which captures the period before COVID-19 and the beginning of the pandemic (e.g., shutdown). The severity of a region's economic segregation and inequality, however, are associated with higher rates of employment decline in the early recovery months of October to December of 2020. These findings suggest that places that rate worse for indicators of the new urban crisis were less able to recover from the negative economic shocks related to COVID-19. © The Author(s) 2023.

Community, work, and family in times of COVID-19

We are living in challenging and uncertain times. At the time this article was edited, there were already more than 2.4 million confirmed cases of the corona virus (COVID-19) (World Health Organization, 2020). Nearly every country across the globe is struggling to reduce the spread of the COVID-19 virus and limit its health, societal, and economic consequences. The full impact on community, work, family, and its intersections is not yet clear. As the Editorial Board of Community, Work & Family, we share a deep concern for the potential impact of this global health pandemic. We similarly stand in awe to all the communities, workers, and families doing their utmost to combat it. In this article, we do not attempt to provide definitive answers or even recommendations to address the problems we are witnessing. We do, however, feel the need to raise a collective voice about the significant potential for increased inequality. COVID-19 is not a great leveler. In all likelihood, COVID-19 will exacerbate existing inequalities, both in its immediate consequences resulting from the drastic measures taken to contain its spread, as well as its potential long-term consequences. These inequalities may take many forms. We highlight a number of them here as they relate to this journal's focus on community, work, and family. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)

Social class, COVID-19 and care: Schools on the front line in Ireland during the COVID-19 pandemic

Schools have a duty of care to children that extends beyond educational performance to include wellbeing and welfare. Yet, research has highlighted the tensions that arise when ‘care' and ‘learning' are treated as binaries, especially when schools operate within unequal socio-­economic conditions. Extended COVID-19 school closures brought these issues into sharp relief, highlighting the central role of schools as a front line service in the lives of poorer children. This paper provides qualitative insights into the classed experiences of extended school closure and the role and response of schools through the eyes of parents, teachers and principals in Ireland. We frame these responses in the context of the provision of a careful education, exploring the role of normative and affective relations in teaching and learning. Questions are posed in relation to schools as care regimes and the ‘mission creep' between educational and welfare provision in schools serving poorer children. © 2023 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

Effects of objective and subjective indicators of economic inequality on subjective well-being: Underlying mechanisms

Much research found that economic inequality-the dispersion of incomes distribution among individuals in a society-affects subjective well-being (SWB). As a meta-analysis has shown, the association between economic inequality, commonly measured by the Gini index, and individuals' SWB is weak and not significant. Psychosocial research suggests that the situational perception, rather than objective reality, has a greater impact on individuals. Our aim was to investigate whether and how objective and subjective measures of economic inequality affect the subjective individuals' well-being, both in its affective and cognitive components. A representative Italian sample (N = 1446, 51% women;average age = 42.42 years, SD = 12.87) answered an online survey. Multilevel regressions detected a negative and significant effect of the inequality perception on well-being. In contrast, the Gini index showed no effect. Two psychological mechanisms explain the association between perceived inequality and well-being: Perceived anger toward inequality and individuals' economic vulnerability. The parallel mediation models showed that the effect of perceived inequality is conveyed by cognitive (economic vulnerability) and emotional (anger) processing of inequality. Findings also highlighted the role of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)

The impacts of COVID-19 on the relationship between perceived economic inequality and political action among socioeconomic classes

Economic inequality qualifies as a structural characteristic leading to political action, albeit this relationship manifests differently across socioeconomic classes. COVID-19 pandemic has amplified existing economic inequalities in ways that increased social tensions and political unrest around the world. This research investigates the effect of COVID-19 personal impacts on the relationship between perceived economic inequality and individuals' political participation. An online survey was administered to an Italian representative sample of 1,446 people (51% women, mean age of 42.42 years, SD = 12.87). The questionnaire assessed the perceived economic inequality, the personal impacts of COVID-19 (i.e., on finance, mental health, and ability to procure resources), and individuals' involvement in political participation. Moderation analyses were conducted separately for different socioeconomic classes (i.e., lower, middle, and upper classes). Results showed that individuals who perceive greater economic inequality, while controlling for perceived wage gap, are more likely to take action, but only if they belong to the higher class. For lower-class individuals, perceiving greater inequality erodes political action. Interaction effects occurred mainly in the middle class and with COVID-19 impacts on resources procurement, which inhibits political action. Copyright © 2023 Vezzoli, Mari, Valtorta and Volpato.

Income inequality and population health: A panel data analysis

The dissertation examines the link between income inequality and population health indicators, including life expectancy, infant mortality, and COVID-19 mortality. It aims to determine if an unequal income distribution poses a hazard to the health status of individuals in society. Using a large international panel dataset from the newest version of the Standardized World Income Inequality Database, the study re-examines the relative income hypothesis and solves such methodological challenges as countries' stratification and heterogeneity bias. Pooled time-series cross-section and country fixed-effects models estimates, based on a sample of developed and developing countries, indicate that income inequality is negatively associated with life expectancy at birth and does not play a significant role in determining infant mortality. Furthermore, the results indicate different effects of income inequality depending on a country's economic standing. Once countries were divided into income groups, the association between income inequality and life expectancy was found only relevant for the group of low-income countries. On the contrary, in the case of infant mortality, a significant association was observed for high-income countries only, thus supporting the relative income hypothesis for the most developed countries. Finally, examining the role of income inequality as a possible driver of health inequities during the COVID-19 pandemic indicates a positive and statistically significant association between the country's Gini coefficient and the number of excess deaths during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. The findings emphasize the need to develop strategies to address income inequality as a critical socio-economic factor and target interventions beneficial for the population in the lowest part of the income distribution. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)