Current Coronavirus Crisis Research Articles

COVID-19. Scenarios of a superfluous crisis

Purpose This study aims to highlight the critical role case fatality rates (CFR) have played in the emergence and the management of particularly the early phases of the current coronavirus crisis. Design/methodology/approach The study presents a contrastive map of CFR for the coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) and influenza (H1N1 and H2N2). Findings The mapped data shows that current CFR of SARS-CoV-2 are considerably lower than, or similar to those, of hospitalised patients in the UK, Spain, Germany or international samples. The authors therefore infer a possible risk that the virulence of the coronavirus is considerably overestimated because of sampling biases, and that increased testing might reduce the general CFR of SARS-CoV-2 to rates similar to, or lower than, of the common seasonal influenza. Originality/value This study concludes that governments, health corporations and health researchers must prepare for scenarios in which the affected populations cease to believe in the statistical foundations of the current coronavirus crisis and interventions.

Corona and value change. The role of social media and emotional contagion

People share their emotions on social media and evidence suggests that in times of crisis people are especially motivated to post emotional content. The current Coronavirus pandemic is such a crisis. The online sharing of emotional content during the Coronavirus crisis may contribute to societal value change. Emotion sharing via social media could lead to emotional contagion which in turn could facilitate an emotional climate in a society. In turn, the emotional climate of a society can influence society’s value structure. The emotions that spread in the current Coronavirus crisis are predominantly negative, which could result in a negative emotional climate. Based on the dynamic relations of values to each other and the way that emotions relate to values, a negative emotional climate can contribute to societal value change towards values related to security preservation and threat avoidance. As a consequence, a negative emotional climate and the shift in values could lead to a change in political attitudes that has implications for rights, freedom, privacy and moral progress. Considering the impact of social media in terms of emotional contagion and a longer-lasting value change is an important perspective in thinking about the ethical long-term impact of social media technology.

Do We Need a Great Reset? COVID-19, Black Revolution, Inequality and Common Good

The current coronavirus crisis is inextricably linked to “Black lives matter” protests in USA and beyond. Both social processes are results of many-year social and economic inequality. Corona crisis gave an acceleration to the process of becoming the societies “left.” We suggest that the Great Reset, i.e. post-COVID-19 innovative development of societies should be based on Economy for the Common Good principles outlined by Christian Felber in 2010. The Great Reset concept is closely connected with the World Economic Forum initiative of 3 June 2020. It opens prospects for truly sustainable development of all future societies.

Super-Flexibility in Practice: Insights from a Crisis.

Flexibility is intuitively valued as a means of dynamically adapting to uncertainty. Historically, it has been especially prized during times of crisis. This is clearly demonstrated today as the current Coronavirus crisis is unfolding; there are many different dimensions of flexibility, ranging from versatility, agility, and resilience, to hedging, robustness and liquidity. For convenience, we fuse these terms together under the conceptual umbrella of “super-flexibility”. We define super-flexibility as a dynamic capability to simultaneously withstand turbulence AND adapt to fluid reality. Our field research has focused on how companies in Silicon Valley embrace uncertainty and drive adaptation. In this paper, we draw on the experience of a manufacturing firm facing the floods that hit Thailand in October 2011. The crisis enabled us to observe a situation in which the different nuances of flexibility collectively came into play within a compressed time-frame. In this paper, we showcase the practical application of super-flexibility in a crisis. First, we describe the conceptual foundations of flexibility and its different nuances. We then examine the chronology of the crisis as events unfolded. We conclude by distilling a number of “super-flexibility” lessons for business leaders.

The more you have, the less you give? Prospective donation behavior for COVID-19 causes

Donation behavior is essential for non-profit organizations, especially during a health crisis, such as the current COVID-19 pandemic. The present study explored a series of associated factors of donor behavior, such as age, gender, income, education, and cause-related factors, in a sample of Romanian adults (N= 168, age range 20-78 years old, 77% females). Our analyses suggested that the fundraising cause's emotional value, along with the fundraiser's public and personal implications, were the most relevant motivational factors for the donor’s behavior. Age, income, and educational level were significantly associated with self-reported donation activity. In essence, younger participants with lower incomes and educational levels reported donating more money to NGOs, mostly to education-related causes. Finally, in a prospective donation task for one of the current COVID-19 related Non-Governmental Organizations’ campaigns, results suggested that a) the higher the income, the lower the probability of donating, and b) the fundraising type of cause was significantly associated with prospective donation behavior. People who usually donated more to medical causes were the most likely to engage in altruistic behavior for coronavirus pandemicrelated issues. We discuss these preliminary results within the current coronavirus crisis and potential implications for both the non-profit and governmental sectors.

The Performative University: ‘Targets’, ‘Terror’ and ‘Taking Back Freedom’ in Academia

This special issue assembles eight papers which provide insights into the working lives of early career to more senior academics, from several different countries. The first common theme which emerges is around the predominance of ‘targets’, enacting aspects of quantification and the ideal of perfect control and fabrication. The second theme is about the ensuing precarious evocation of ‘terror’ impacting on mental well-being, albeit enacted in diverse ways. Furthermore, several papers highlight a particular type of response, beyond complicity to ‘take freedom back’ (the third theme). This freedom is used to assert an emerging parallel form of resistance over time, from overt, planned, institutional collective representation towards more informal, post-recognition forms of collaborative, covert, counter spaces (both virtually and physically). Such resistance is underpinned by a collective care, generosity and embrace of vulnerability, whereby a reflexive collegiality is enacted. We feel that these emergent practices should encourage senior management, including vice-chancellors, to rethink performative practices. Situating the papers in the context of the current coronavirus crisis, they point towards new forms of seeing and organising which open up, rather than close down, academic freedom to unleash collaborative emancipatory power so as to contribute to the public and ecological good.

Analyzing the impact of the coronavirus crisis on business models

In the light of the current coronavirus crisis, business-to-business firms face a variety of challenges in a complex and fast-changing environment. In order to provide structured analysis and to guide strategic decision-making, we present a novel, five-step approach for analyzing the impact of a crisis on a firm's business model. We applied the approach with eight business-to-business firms and find support for its usefulness. The evidence suggests very different impacts of the coronavirus crisis on business-to-business firms, and that understanding these differences is important for strategizing during the crisis but also to navigating successfully into the future. We also describe six different types of crisis impacts on business models. We conclude by developing managerial implications and questions for future research.

The Coronavirus crisis in B2B settings: Crisis uniqueness and managerial implications based on social exchange theory

The current Coronavirus crisis is having disastrous effects for most B2B firms around the world. The decline in sales provokes intra-organizational and inter-organizational tension, requiring a new approach for managing firms' business operations. Particularly, the direct threat to human beings places the attention of managers on the individual. This study investigates the main differences between prior “traditional” financial-based crises and the practices that managers can adopt to navigate and survive the Coronavirus crisis from a social exchange theory (SET) view. The authors identify eight crisis-comparative dimensions to consider to successfully prevail: (1) formation, (2) focus, (3) temporality, (4) government jurisdiction, (5) preparedness, (6) normality, (7) business, and (8) operational deployment. In addition, the study results propose four intertwined areas to classify the managerial practices: (1) digital transformation, (2) decision-making processes, (3) leadership, and (4) emotions and stress.

Editorial Introduction: Governance, Citizenry, and Methodological Advancement in Policy Research

Editorial Introduction: Governance, Citizenry, and Methodological Advancement in Policy Research

Challenges for the Visegrad Group – The Coronavirus Crises and its Impact on Tourism

Abstract This paper aims to analyze the regional cooperation which ensures stability and good relations to neighbours and other V4 countries and helps to enforce collaborations across Europe in many fields such as education, tourism and economic development. Another field of activity of the Visegrad Group is a joint positioning in international tourism which will be addressed in this article on the background of the current coronavirus crisis. The empirical part consists of a SWOT analysis for Visegrad group challenges and a PASTA Analysis with which the effects of the coronavirus pandemic on the tourism industry in the V4 countries are researched. Lastly, recommendations for possible further actions in times of the coronavirus will be given, and potential future collaborations with the WB6 and EaP countries, also with regard to tourism, will be dealt with briefly. This article summarizes aspects related to tourism market, transport, cultural offer, economy, industry, and environment. The particular focus is also paid to political, economic, sociological, technological, legal and environmental factors of the Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary and Slovakia and how the current coronavirus and the resulting measures against the spread of it affects the tourism industry in the Visegrad Group countries.

COVID-19 Impact on Young Arthroplasty Surgeons

BackgroundThe current coronavirus crisis, COVID-19, has affected all orthopedic surgeons. Surgeons at early stages of their career are at risk of being affected differently than their more established counterparts. MethodsWe conducted an online survey for members of the Young Arthroplasty Group to determine what effects this had on their current practice. ResultsNearly 40% of our surveyed group responded ranging from residents, fellows, and early career surgeons. All groups had been affected by the crisis, with different impacts on each subgroup. ConclusionCOVID-19 had significant impact on young surgeons affecting their compensation, redeployment, and career advancement. Available resources should be offered to this group, where available, to mitigate the impact of the crisis.

فلسطين وحالة الاستثناء: حل أم حاجة لابد منها؟ (Palestine and the State of Exception)

Arabic Abstract: يواجه العالم أجمع خطرا شاملا يتمثل بفيروس الكورونا، حيث أصبحت حياة سكان العالم في قبضة هذا العدو الخفي الذي ينتقل عابرا بين الدول. لذلك رأينا مختلف الوسائل لمحاربته؛ منها ما تمثل بالتوعية الشاملة، والاستعانة بالكوادر الصحية، وتقييد الحركة لتصل غالبية الدول إلى إعلان الطوارئ حفاظا على حياة مواطنيها. ربما لم تكن معايير أو وسائل إعلان الطوارئ متشابهة في العالم، ولكن المتفق عليه هو الاحتياج لإعلانها للتقليل من انتشار هذا الوباء العالمي. في ظل حالات الطوارئ المعلنة - والتي عادة ما تكون محددة بمدد زمنية تكون خلالها أو لاحقا لها عملية مراقبة للأعمال الحكومية - يظهر أو يعود للظهور مصطلح حالة الاستثناء. هذا المصطلح عادة ما يتم التغاضي عن استخدامه وذلك اعتبارا أن الحالات الاستثنائية تعد شرطا لإعلان الطوارئ، وعليه فإن الاستثناء قد تم دمجها مع فترة الطوارئ أو الضرورة. لكن في هذا التحليل أنطلق من وجهة نظر مختلفة. في ظل هذه الأزمة المحتدمة ننظر لمقولة جيمس ماديسون الشهيرة لو كان البشر ملائكة، لما كانت هناك حاجة إلى ولو حكمت الملائكة البشر، لما احتجنا إلى ضوابط داخلية أو خارجية على الحكومات. وأضاف مارك توشنيت إلى هذه الفكرة ما يثريها فقال: ولأن البشر ليسوا ملائكة ولا تحكمهم الملائكة، تتجلى ضرورة الضوابط الداخلية والخارجية على الحكومات، رغم أنها في الوقت ذاته مستحيلة. ومن منطلق أن البشر ليسوا ملائكة وأن الحكومات لا تحكم ملائكة، بات علينا تجاهل المستحيل. فبدون السعي إلى وضع ضوابط داخلية أو خارجية، تسود الفوضى وتستبد الدكتاتورية دون أدنى شك. وفي سياق غير بعيد، ربما نرى العالم برمته يمر بهذه المرحلة من عدم الاستقرار نتيجة أزمة الكورونا. في هذه الورقة، اتطرق الى اشكاليه عدم القدرة على تمديد الطوارئ في فلسطين بناءا على قرار بقانون. كما اتطرق فيها الى أهميه فهم الاستثناء التي تعد مفسرة ولكن في نفس الوقت تعد مأزقا اذا ما تم عدم إدراكها بوضعها الصحيح لان هذه الحالة تستمد شرعيتها من الواقع السياسي وليس من الواقع القانوني . وعليه فإن افضل الحلول لتمديد أدوات الطوارئ اثناء الاستثناء في فلسطين تتمثل أولا بإصدار مرسوم رئاسي من قبل فخامة الرئيس يستند به على المرسوم رقم (1) لسنة 2020 كعمل تختص به السلطة التنفيذية. ثانيا : مراجعة الاجراءات التي تتم خلال فترة اعلان الاستثناء من قبل المحكمة الدستورية، حيث أنه بعد قرار حل المجلس التشريعي من قبل المحكمة بتاريخ 12/12/2018، أصبحت المادة 43 غير قابلة للتطبيق إضافة لعدم القدرة على تمديد فتره الثلاثين يوما المذكورة في نص حاله الطوارئ دون موافقة ثلثي أعضاء المجلس التشريعي الذي تم حله تماما . وعليه، من أجل تبرير هذا الطرح، تنطلق هذه الورقة من تفسير الاستثناء التي تختلف بناء على ما تقدمه هذه الورقة عن حاله الطوارئ وحاله الضرورة، وتقدم الورقة أيضا المفهوم الذي تناقله الفقهاء وتضيف عليه مفهوما آخر يبرر هذا الطرح. English Abstract: As a respond to the current corona virus crisis; the Palestinian government has declared the state of emergency for 30 days according to Article 110 in the Basic Law. After the 30 days the government needs a solution to renew this status especially that the parliament has been dissolved by the Constitutional Court in 2018. In this paper, I argue that Palestine has entered a ‘State of Exception’ which has become, as put by Giorgio Agamben, a ‘paradigm or technique of government’. In making this argument I explore how ambiguities in the BL allowed the President to normalise the ‘State of Emergency’ and the ‘Necessity Situation’. Despite the last point, I suggest a consitutional solution in order to keep lives safe and not violate the basic law at the same time, but I ask the question if people actually care of the legality of the actions taken if their lives are protected by them?

The Effect of Business Cycle Expectations on the German Apprenticeship Market: Estimating the Impact of Covid-19

A firm's expectation about the future business cycle is an important determinant of the decision to train apprentices. As German firms typically train apprentices to either fill future skilled worker positions, or as a substitute for other types of labor, the current coronavirus crisis will have a strong and negative impact on the German economy according to the current business cycle expectations of German firms. To the extent that the training decision of a firm depends on its perception of the business cycle, we expect a downward shift in the firm's demand for apprentices and consequently also a decrease in the equilibrium number of apprenticeship contracts. We analyze German data on the apprenticeship from 2007 to 2019 and apply firstdifferences regressions to account for unobserved heterogeneity across states and occupations, allowing us to identify the association between changes in two popular measures of business cycle expectations (the ifo Business Climate Index and the ifo Employment Barometer) and subsequent changes in the demand for apprentices, the number of new apprenticeship contracts, unfilled vacancies and unsuccessful applicants. Taking into account the most recent data on business cycle expectations up to May 2020, we estimate that the coronavirus-related decrease in firms' expectations about the business cycle can be associated with a predicted 9% decrease in firm demand for apprentices and an almost 7% decrease in the number of new apprenticeship positions in Germany in 2020 (-34,700 apprenticeship contracts; 95% confidence interval: +/- 8,800).

FINANCIAL MARKETS GLOBALIZATION: THE ESSENCE AND IMPACT ON THE REGULATION OF NATIONAL SECURITIES MARKETS

Introduction. In 2020, the world experienced an unprecedented crisis caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, which affected all aspects of public life, including the financial market. The negative impact of the current crisis on individual countries is exacerbated by the significant level of globalization of financial markets, which is characterized by lower regulatory barriers and rapid capital movements between national markets. The current coronavirus crisis, like a litmus test, has highlighted the benefits of good and failings of bad regulatory policies, and that countries that have responded in a timely manner to the challenges of globalization and implemented the necessary reforms, liberalizing markets and pursuing macroeconomic policies, can benefits of globalization. Purpose. The purpose of the article is to draw conclusions based on the definition of the nature and features of globalization, methods of its assessment and potential impact on national economies in order to improve national securities market regulation policies, as well as improve cooperation between national regulators in the world. Method (methodology). The methods of analysis, synthesis, comparison, generalization, statistical data processing, as well as a graphical method of presenting scientific results were applied. Results. The essence, types and main stages of globalization are determined, definition of «financial globalization» is proposed, and conclusions regarding the strengthening of signs of de-globalization in the real sector of the economy in 2020, the first signs of which appeared after the arrival of Trump as President of the United States are made. Тhe negative and positive aspects of globalization impact on financial markets are analyzed, the problem aspects of regulation of national securities markets in the context of financial globalization are focused, the list of indicators for estimating dynamics and development of globalization in the financial aspect is defined.

Decolonising Stereotypes: A Brief Reflection on Racial Violence and Cultural Relations During the COVID-19 Crisis

During these first moments of the current coronavirus crisis, world powers have been pointing the finger at each other and finding unilateral solutions, rather

International Disease Epidemics and the Shadow Economy

Adding to the emerging body of research related to the current coronavirus crisis, this paper studies the impact of disease epidemics on the worldwide prevalence of the shadow or the underground economy. The informal sector undermines compliance with government regulations and lowers tax collections. Our main hypothesis is that epidemics positively impacts the spread of the shadow economy. Using data on nearly 130 nations and nesting the empirical analysis in the broader literature on the drivers of the shadow sector, we find that both the incidence and the intensity of epidemics positively and significantly contribute to the spread of the underground sector. Numerically, a ten percent increase in the intensity of epidemics leads to an increase in the prevalence of the shadow economy by about 2.1 percent. These findings about the spillovers from epidemics have implications for economic policies in the current times of coronavirus.

Test za monetarne mere Američke centralne banke (FED) - iskustva i pouke u doba koronavirusne krize

Coronavirus crisis from 2020 in USA is a mixture of financial and economic crisis that happened in 1929-33 and 2007-09. The body of work is permeated with attitudes in regards to the coronavirus crisis from 2020 and previous financial crisis from 2007 to 2009 by the world renowned economists and Nobel Prize winners Joseph Stiglitz and Pol Krugman and former presidents of the Federal Reserve Bank Ben Bernanke, Alen Greenspan and others. The US Federal Reserve Bank opted with a relaxed approach to the monetary politics during the coronavirus crisis - a new-old approach that they picked many times before. Current coronavirus crisis measures to the monetary politics in USA on one side will contribute to deflation while on the other side it will grow consumption and production with delay until 2021. Because of the social distancing during the coronavirus crisis, new problems emerged like the economic distancing of the USA economy, enormous debts to FRB on all levels because of emission of securities, bonds, mortgage and other form of securities which caused growth of activity of the top notch monetary institution in USA.