German financial state aid during Covid-19 pandemic: Higher impact among digitalized self-employed

In response to strong revenue and income losses facing a large share of self-employed individuals during the COVID-19 pandemic, the German federal government introduced a €50bn emergency-aid program. Based on real-time online-survey data comprising more than 20,000 observations, we analyze the impact of this program on the confidence to survive the crisis. We investigate how the digitalization level of self-employed individuals influences the program's effectiveness. Employing propensity score matching, we find that the emergency-aid program had only moderately positive effects on the confidence of self-employed to survive the crisis. However, self-employed whose businesses were highly digitalized, benefitted much more from the state aid than those whose businesses were less digitalized. This only holds true for those self-employed, who started the digitalization processes already before the crisis. Taking a regional perspective, we find suggestive evidence that the quality of the regional broadband infrastructure matters in the sense that it increases the effectiveness of the emergency-aid program. Our findings show the interplay between governmental support programs, the digitalization levels of entrepreneurs, and the regional digital infrastructure. The study helps public policy to improve the impact of crisis-related policy instruments, ultimately increasing the resilience of small firms in times of crises. © 2023 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

The Impact of Conditional Cash Transfers on Poverty, Inequality, and Employment During COVID-19: A Case Study from Brazil.

The policy responses to the COVID-19 pandemic varied widely between countries. Understanding how effective these responses were is important to improve preparedness for future crises. This paper investigates how one of largest scale conditional cash transfer COVID relief policies in the world-the Brazilian Emergency Aid (EA)-impacted poverty, inequality, and the labor market amidst the public health crisis. We use fixed-effects estimators to analyze the impact of the EA on labor force participation, unemployment, poverty, and income at the household level. We find that inequality, measured by per capita household income, reduced to a historical low and was accompanied by substantial poverty declines-even as compared to pre-pandemic levels. Furthermore, our results suggest that the policy has effectively targeted those in most need-temporarily reducing historical racial inequalities-while not incentivizing reductions in labor force participation. Absent the policy, adverse shocks would have been significant and are likely to occur once the transfer is interrupted. We also observe that the policy was not enough to curb the spread of the virus, suggesting that cash transfers alone are insufficient to protect citizens.

For a new care economy and reformulation of social gender roles in times of crisis

This essay seeks to understand specificities that structure and reproduce certain economic processes of exploitation and marginalization of women in contemporary society. The focus is to analyze the conditions of income generation, the difficulties of entering the Brazilian labor market and the unequal distribution of care activities that cross female bodies. As well, it aims to stimulate the debate about the importance of formulating and implementing active public policies, especially in times of crisis and in the field of care, through the analysis of the role played by Emergency Aid (EA) during the first year of the Covid-19 pandemic. The method used in the research is based, in the first part, on bibliographic research of Feminist Economics. In the second, referring to the quantitative part, in the descriptive analysis of the PNAD -COVID19 data, aided by results found in studies and relevant articles on this topic. This, in order to verify if the magnitude of the impacts felt in the pandemic varied according to gender, reaching women disproportionately, and if the granting of the benefit in this first year was able to mitigate the growth of social inequalities considering the intersectionality between gender, race and class.

Emergency-aid for self-employed in the Covid-19 pandemic: A flash in the pan?

The self-employed faced strong income losses during the Covid-19 pandemic. Many governments introduced programs to financially support the self-employed during the pandemic, including Germany. The German Ministry for Economic Affairs announced a €50bn emergency-aid program in March 2020, offering one-off lump-sum payments of up to €15,000 to those facing substantial revenue declines. By reassuring the self-employed that the government 'would not let them down' during the crisis, the program had also the important aim of motivating the self-employed to get through the crisis. We investigate whether the program affected the confidence of the self-employed to survive the crisis using real-time online-survey data comprising more than 20,000 observations. We employ propensity score matching, making use of a rich set of variables that influence the subjective survival probability as main outcome measure. We observe that this program had significant effects, with the subjective survival probability of the self-employed being moderately increased. We reveal important effect heterogeneities with respect to education, industries, and speed of payment. Notably, positive effects only occur among those self-employed whose application was processed quickly. This suggests stress-induced waiting costs due to the uncertainty associated with the administrative processing and the overall pandemic situation. Our findings have policy implications for the design of support programs, while also contributing to the literature on the instruments and effects of entrepreneurship policy interventions in crisis situations.

EXPERIENCE REPORT OF THE VIRTUAL HEALTH EXTENSION PROJECT PREVENTION INSIDE THE HOME: EMERGENCY AID

The State University of Tocantins (Unitins) developed the extension project with the name "Virtual health: prevention inside the home", where several activities were carried out completely online in order to provide information to the population in the areas of health, social and legal assistance related to the Covid-19 pandemic. This work seeks to report the experience about the podcast and also the booklet that dealt with the emergency aid brought by law 13,982, which was published on April 2, 2020. The podcast and booklet were made available on the Project's website, in order to bring information to the community on this aid whose main objective was to benefit the most needy people in this moment of public calamity.

Professional Judgment and Emergency Fund Programs: An Opportunity to Improve

In Spring 2020, during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of students facing financial hardships increased as job losses mounted and schools closed their campuses. Schools, the federal government, and other organizations stepped in to help students deal with emergencies;but there are often hurdles to quickly getting emergency aid into the hands of students. While Title IV of the Higher Education Act provides a viable response mechanism through its emergency aid provisions, these provisions are underutilized. In this paper, we discuss ways in which schools can more effectively use professional judgment authority to quickly get emergency aid to students when they need it. We also discuss ways in which Congress can improve federal policy by removing needless restrictions.

COVID-19 and zoonoses in Brazil: Environmental scan of one health preparedness and response.

The emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic reinforced the central role of the One Health (OH) approach, as a multisectoral and multidisciplinary perspective, to tackle health threats at the human-animal-environment interface. This study assessed Brazilian preparedness and response to COVID-19 and zoonoses with a focus on the OH approach and equity dimensions. We conducted an environmental scan using a protocol developed as part of a multi-country study. The article selection process resulted in 45 documents: 79 files and 112 references on OH; 41 files and 81 references on equity. The OH and equity aspects are poorly represented in the official documents regarding the COVID-19 response, either at the federal and state levels. Brazil has a governance infrastructure that allows for the response to infectious diseases, including zoonoses, as well as the fight against antimicrobial resistance through the OH approach. However, the response to the pandemic did not fully utilize the resources of the Brazilian state, due to the lack of central coordination and articulation among the sectors involved. Brazil is considered an area of high risk for emergence of zoonoses mainly due to climate change, large-scale deforestation and urbanization, high wildlife biodiversity, wide dry frontier, and poor control of wild animals' traffic. Therefore, encouraging existing mechanisms for collaboration across sectors and disciplines, with the inclusion of vulnerable populations, is required for making a multisectoral OH approach successful in the country.

Social protection and COVID-19: evaluation of regional impacts of the Emergency Aid policy in Brazil

The new Coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19), which began in late 2019 in China, lead to a health and economic crisis of significant proportions. The decrease in economic activity in order to prevent further spread of the disease affected all economic sectors, resulting in the unprecedented loss of jobs and the weakening of the informal economy. The Emergency Aid (EA) was created with the purpose of guaranteeing a subsistence income, minimizing the economic problems brought about by the pandemic. The aim of this paper is to analyze the direct and indirect impacts of the EA income transfers on the economy of Brazilian states. Of particular interest is to assess the distribution of indirect impacts as there may be spillovers of income between regions because of inter-sector relations and production chains. Thus, given the differences in production structures, the accounting of indirect impacts can result in a structure of regional distribution of benefits that is quite different from the initial one. The aim of this study is to assess which regions are relatively more benefited by comparing the initial structure of the distribution of the EA benefits with the final structure, after accounting for the spillovers. To do so, an interregional input-output model developed by Haddad et al. (2018) and data from the Brazilian Transparency Portal (Portal da Transparência) on resources allocated by the EA in the period from April to August 2020 were used. The results show that the states that benefited most in the initial distribution of the EA are the relatively most populous and poorest (Northeast) and the most benefited in the final distribution are those with more complex and relatively more developed productive structures (Southeast and South).

Information management hits and misses in the COVID19 emergency in Brazil.

Brazilian Federal Government created an emergency aid to face the COVID19 emergency. This aid provides monthly payments to low-income or unemployed citizens, informal workers, or individual micro-entrepreneurs. An intricate set of criteria made too complex the identification of all citizens eligible for emergency aid, considering there is no an integrated database to which they could apply these criteria. Consequently, lots of people who fulfilled the criteria were not able to receive the aid, and lots of people who were not supposed to get it ended up receiving it. In this context, the goal of this opinion paper is to discuss the process effectiveness and which issues related to information management hindered the positive program impact. Additionally, a less complex but relevant case of Rio Grande do Sul State is discussed. Both cases - the Federal Government and the state government - show the importance of effective information management to face very demanding situations and avoid the high social price to be paid by those who need this aid the most.

The COVID-19 pandemic, emergency aid and social work in Brazil.

This essay reflects on the implementation of federal government emergency aid in Brazil in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, highlighting elements from the work of Social Workers in the context of growing demand for the supply of material provisions. Economic and social conditions in Brazil have particularities that impact the operationalisation of this benefit, which is aimed at the poor, that add complexity and impose limits. When considering the structural limits set, this context imposes challenges on the work of Social Workers. The need to reconnect and enhance the struggle for social rights is emphasised through the different strategies of the working class.

The Implementation of Emergency Aid as an exceptional measure of social protection / A implementação do Auxílio Emergencial como medida excepcional de proteção social / La implementación de la Ayuda de Emergencia como medida excepcional de protección social

Resumo O Auxílio Emergencial, instituído pela Lei nº 13.982, de 2020, é uma das maiores iniciativas do Governo Federal para minimizar os efeitos econômicos da pandemia do coronavírus (COVID-19) para a parte mais vulnerável da população, entres eles os beneficiários do Programa Bolsa Família (PBF) e os inscritos no Cadastro Único para Programas Sociais do Governo Federal (CadÚnico), cidadãos que já tinham algum tipo de relacionamento com políticas de assistência social. Além desses, o benefício abrange também trabalhadores informais, autônomos e microempreendedores individuais (MEI). Com base na análise documental e por meio de observação direta, este estudo buscou delinear o processo de implementação do Auxílio Emergencial, no âmbito do arranjo estabelecido pelo Ministério da Cidadania (MC), através da abordagem da burocracia de nível de sistema.

Resumen La Ayuda de Emergencia, instituida por la Ley n. 13.982, de 2020, es una de las mayores iniciativas del Gobierno Federal Brasileño para minimizar los efectos económicos de la pandemia de coronavirus (COVID-19) para la parte más vulnerables de la población, entre ellas, los beneficiarios del "Programa Bolsa Família" (PBF) y aquellos inscritos en el Registro Único para Programas Sociales del Gobierno Federal" (CadÚnico), ciudadanos que ya tenían algún tipo de relación con las políticas de asistencia social. Además de estos, el beneficio también abarca a trabajadores informales, autónomos e microempresarios individuales (MEI). Basado en el análisis documental y a través de la observación directa, este estudio buscó esbozar el proceso de implementación de la Ayuda de Emergencia, en el marco establecido por el Ministerio de Ciudadanía (MC), a través del enfoque de burocracia a nivel de sistema.

Abstract Emergency Aid, instituted by Law 13982, of 2020, is one of the biggest initiatives of the Brazilin Federal Government to minimize the economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. This aid is directed at the most vulnerable population, among them, the beneficiaries of the conditional cash transfer program "Bolsa Família" (PBF) and those enrolled in the single registry for social protection "Cadastro Único para Programas Sociais do Governo Federal" (CadÚnico). The benefit also covers informal employees, self-employed and individual microentrepreneurs (MEI). Based on documentary analysis and through direct observation, this study sought to outline the process of implementing emergency aid measures, within the framework established by the Ministry of Citizenship (MC), through the system-level bureaucracy approach.