Pandemics, Socioeconomic Gaps, and Macroeconomic Policy: The Ugly Truth Highlighted by COVID-19

Economic stratification lies at the heart of persistent inequities, which have been considerably amplified under COVID-19. To tackle these persistent inequities, a social economics approach and common goods focused policy for at-risk groups are required. Using this approach, this article highlights various past macroeconomic and health policy decisions that have created the conditions for the social and spatial distribution of COVID-19 infections, deaths, and other deleterious outcomes. Additionally, the linkages between health and socioeconomic status are explored, shedding light on the current and likely gaps present given the Covid19 global pandemic. One cannot look at the COVID-19 crisis in a vacuum, but rather how the crisis reflects deeply rooted institutional, structural, and systemic social stratification. This article contributes to the existing literature by analysing it through the lens of occupational prestige. The recognition of social economics and the growing stratification of Americans is necessary to enact healthier policies for all, but especially marginalized communities.

Post-Crisis Management: Covid-19, Public Policy & Impact on the Corporate Strategy

The Coronavirus within a short span of time has done enough to disrupt the global supply chains, investor sentiments, financial markets, and economic activity on a massive scale. The global economy of the entire world has been hamstrung and lies in tatters. Further, hundreds of millions of workers are being locked up in homes and face pay cuts and lay-offs if there is no respite in the fear pandemic. The viral wave moving across continents taking a massive toll as governments fight an unfamiliar and unanticipated fight against the virus, companies shutting operations, and normal life coming to a screeching halt. The COVID-19 crisis is catastrophic as we are unequipped to deal with the magnitude of the challenges thrown at us and severe time constraints to get equipped with the medical machinery to fight it. The baffled governments globally initiated rapid action but failed to have any bearing on the financial markets or ameliorate the situation in any way, except the lock-downs that potentially scuttle any efforts in ramping up capacities to effectively tackle the lethal virus, apart from colossal economic and societal costs. This exploratory study attempts to review and evaluate the unusual virus to humankind, its economic and policy effects, and suggest some practical policy prescriptions to tide over the public health-cum-economic crisis. The first and second sections bring out the uniqueness of the COVID19-triggered health emergency and accordingly set the objectives of the study and methods used. The third and fourth sections evaluate the socio-economic and financial fallout of the crisis and the unprecedented fiscal-monetary stimulus strategies resorted to globally. The fifth section specifically focuses on the highly populated Indian economy and the visionary ways of the largest ever fiscal-monetary impetus in the backdrop of a potentially high fiscal deficits scenario. The sixth section evaluates the impact on the Corporate Sector and success tactics of the FMCG & Pharmaceutical sectors. The last section essentially weighs various policy actions, impacts, and a few recommendations for policy effectiveness, besides conclusions.

Factors affecting relief aid policy of local governments – electoral competitiveness, fiscal capacity, and severity of crisis

We examined the effects of three factors on whether and how local governments provide relief aid to their citizens in the context of the COVID-19 crisis: the demand side (electoral competitiveness), the supply side (fiscal capacity) and the severity of the crisis (the number of confirmed cases). Our findings indicate that local governments with lower electoral competitiveness chose the targeting method over the universal method. Those with stronger fiscal capacity tended to provide relief aid using the targeting method. For those in areas with few confirmed cases, the universal method was favoured. While the results for individual relief aid were consistent with those for the entire sample, the results for business relief aid were not.

Macroeconomic Policy versus Fuel Poverty in Poland—Support or Barrier

Energy and climate policies play an increasingly important role in the world in the era of climate change and rising energy prices. More often, the importance of the development of the energy sector and climate protection is seen from the point of view of the expenditures that will need to be absorbed in the economy, with the potential for increased energy prices. However, it should be remembered that this is also related to the issue of fuel poverty and the inability to meet basic energy needs by parts of society. The aim of the paper is to assess the importance of macroeconomic policy instruments in reducing fuel poverty, using Poland as an example. It will be examined whether and how the government influenced this phenomenon (directly or indirectly), through which instruments, and which instruments (fiscal, monetary or energy-climate policy) played the most important role in shaping the scale of fuel poverty in Poland, with an emphasis on the role of monetary and fiscal policy instruments. The analysis covered the period from 2004 to mid-2021. The results of the research showed that in Poland there is a lack of policy directly aimed at reducing fuel poverty, and the government affects the scale of fuel poverty indirectly mainly through macroeconomic policy instruments, i.e., fiscal and monetary policy instruments. The main and most effective instruments for reducing fuel poverty in Poland are social transfers. Other instruments that have a statistically significant impact on this poverty rate are the level of tax burdens and short-term interest rates. The analysis also revealed some opportunities for effective fuel poverty reduction policies. It was proven that in addition to fiscal policy, monetary policy, which would stimulate a decrease in short-term interest rates, is also an effective way to reduce the fuel poverty rate in Poland.

MACROECONOMIC IMPACTS OF THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC IN THE CZECH REPUBLIC IN THE PERIOD OF 2020-2021

This article provides a comprehensive summary of selected macroeconomic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic in the Czech Republic, including an assessment of certain implemented fiscal and monetary policies, using data from 2019 (to compare the development of the economic situation during the COVID-19 pandemic with the period before the onset of the pandemic), 2020 and 2021 on a monthly or quarterly basis. Particular attention is paid to monetary policy effects, which, unlike fiscal policy, the Mundell-Fleming model considers effective in a small open economy with a freely floating exchange rate. The article also investigates the volume of fiscal measures taken to mitigate COVID-19 pandemic effects, the restrictive measures introduced to Czech households and firms as well as labour market developments during the period of 2019-2021, including quantification of the aggregate labour productivity index. The conclusions of the article are that, during the COVID-19 pandemic, macroeconomic indicators in the Czech Republic acted in accordance with the established partial hypotheses of the Mundell-Fleming model and in accordance with the hypothesis of the modified Phillips curve. Possible causes of the significant increase in inflation since September 2021 include 2020 nominal public and private sector salary growth, which showed faster growth than aggregate labour productivity, and the highly expansionary fiscal policy that characterized the 2021 pre-election period.

Indian Economic Growth, Covid-19 and Business: The Way Ahead

The prolonged economic stress caused by the pre-pandemic economic slowdown and the Covid-19 impact in India has severely challenged its future economic growth prospects. The paper investigated the best strategy to get the Indian economy back on track for faster economic development. It used macroeconomic data trends of the last two decades to identify critical determinants of growth, a sample survey of Indian business enterprises undertaken during March 21 -29, 2020 to understand the initial impact of Covid-19 as well as the economic impact of the pre-pandemic policy measures of the Government of India, and multivariate regression analysis of critical factors identified through the above two steps to estimate their precise impact on growth using the RBI's macroeconomic data set for the period 1966-2018. Based on the findings, the paper concluded that aggressively promoting agricultural growth and private investment creating rural infrastructure and employment can yield the requisite stimulus for faster and sustainable economic growth. © 2022 The Society of Economics and Development, except certain content provided by third parties

The European Semester as Goldilocks: Macroeconomic Policy Coordination and the Recovery and Resilience Facility

How and why did the European Semester end up as the main institutional vehicle of the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF)? To what extent did this new set-up change the power balance among key actors (for example, financial and economic actors versus social affairs actors)? Drawing on historical institutionalism and based on 28 semi-structured interviews and document analysis, our assessment suggests that while social actors were initially side-lined and national executives strengthened, over time the pendulum is swinging back. The usual actors are strategically using the institutional structures of the revised Semester as a vehicle to ‘have a say’ in the RRF. Having more carrots and sticks suggests further strengthening the pivotal role of the European Commission. Yet having the option of submitting national plans gives member states options too. The EU institutional response to the Covid-19 pandemic built on, and further cemented, the EU's socio-economic governance architecture. © 2021 The Authors. JCMS: Journal of Common Market Studies published by University Association for Contemporary European Studies and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Policy responses to COVID-19 and stock market reactions - An international evidence.

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused escalating levels of business, economic and societal uncertainty and created extensive disruptions around the world. Policymakers have responded with a variety of measures to combat this unprecedented crisis. This paper investigates the stock market reactions to the national policy responses. We focus on the two influential policy actions: the nationwide lockdown order aiming to slow down the spread of the Coronavirus, and the interest rate cut policy aiming to minimize the negative economic impact of the pandemic. The Difference-In-Difference method is employed to conduct a cross-country analysis. We find that both policy actions have a significant and positive impact on the stock market performance. We also document a larger stock market reaction to the announcement of an interest rate cut policy than that of a lockdown order.