Economic Care Research Articles

Brain health is essential for smooth economic transitions: towards socio-economic sustainability, productivity and well-being

Abstract Optimal brain health is essential to smoothing major global skill-intensive economic transitions, such as the bioeconomy, green, care economy and digital transitions. Good brain health is vital to socio-economic sustainability, productivity and well-being. The care transition focuses on recognizing and investing in care services and care work as essential for economic growth and social well-being. The green transition involves shifting towards environmentally sustainable and fairer societies to combat climate change and environmental degradation. The digital transition aims to unlock digital growth potential and deploy innovative solutions for businesses and citizens, and to improve the accessibility and efficiency of services. The bioeconomy transition refers to the shift towards an economy based on products, services and processes derived from biological resources, such as plants and microorganisms. Brain capital, which encompasses brain health and brain skills, is a critical economic asset for the success of economies of the future. The brain economy transition from a brain-negative (brain-unhealthy) economy, which depletes brain capital, to a brain-positive (brain-healthy) economy, which arrests and reverses the loss of brain capital, will be foundational to these major transitions. Increased brain capital is vital to educational attainment, upskilling and reskilling. In this paper, we provide a detailed roadmap for the brain economy transition.

Changing Geographies of Segregation in the US Care Sector: An Intersectional View on Low-Wage Care Workers

Recent literature highlights longstanding structural inequalities in the US care economy, particularly along gender, racial, and ethnic lines. However, limited attention has been paid to the role of geography in structuring these disparities. This paper addresses this gap by descriptively analyzing of occupational segregation in the US low-wage care sector across commuting zones from 1980 to 2020. Our findings show that women are still more likely than men to work in low-wage care occupations. Moreover, local racial and ethnic composition plays a key role in determining who performs low-wage care work, with racialized women persistently overrepresented in low-wage care employment both nationally and regionally. While there is significant regional variation in occupational segregation, there is evidence of convergence in recent decades. Finally, using group-based trajectory modeling, we identify distinct regional trajectories in the evolution of occupational segregation in the low-wage care sector, demonstrating that national averages mask underlying regional trends.

Unpaid Labor of Women in Barangay San Juan, Aliaga, Nueva Ecija Towards Sustainable Gender Equality Policy Reforms

Globally, women have been a critical part of every household and agricultural operation. Despite their major contributions in the care economy in maintaining a healthy and sustainable food system, they remain largely invisible because, for a long time, economists depart from valuing unpaid work because of its non-economic value and social constructs. Barangay San Juan is one of the 26 barangays representing 7.47% of the total population of the municipality categorized by PhilAtlas (n.d.) as landlocked, referring to an area that is entirely surrounded by land. Before the agricultural mechanization, farmwomen in the barangay devoted 35 hours a week of unpaid care and 49 hours a week of unpaid farm work assisting the family in farm activities. The mechanization displaced farmwomen and deprived them of income opportunity while continuously providing domestic care to the family. This research aims to investigate the impact of unpaid labor for women in Barangay San Juan, Aliaga, and Nueva Ecija are adhering to Sustainable Development Goal 5 (SDG-5) by recognizing the value of unpaid work. A triangulation approach was employed through a qualitative and descriptive design to assess the effects of unpaid work on gender equality, which revealed a significant amount of time devoted by women in the care economy, hence dismissing their economic opportunity in the labor market. The observed absence led to the proposal of operational gender education, governance in resource mobilization, and inclusion of gender perspectives in ordinances that are critical in achieving equality to increase value recognition of women's labor.

Use of Complementary and Integrative Health Approaches in Adults with Long COVID in the US, a Nationally Representative Survey.

Background: Long COVID is a serious, complex condition that has affected the lives of millions of people globally. Complementary and integrative health (CIH) approaches offer a wide range of potential therapies for the management of long COVID symptoms. However, there is limited information available about the utilization of CIH among long COVID patients. Methods: Nationally representative cross-sectional data from the United States 2022 National Health Interview Survey (NHIS, response rate 47.7%, n = 27,651) were used to investigate prevalence and predictors of CIH use in the past 12 months among individuals who experienced long COVID. The 12-month prevalence of CIH use was descriptively analyzed for those with long COVID versus those without using chi-squared tests or unpaired t-tests. Independent predictors of CIH use among individuals with long COVID were analyzed using a stepwise multiple logistic regression analysis. Results: A weighted total of 17,610,801 US adults (19.7%) who had a confirmed case of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) developed long COVID symptoms. A slightly greater proportion of individuals with long COVID (44.4%) than those without (40.9%) used CIH approaches in the past 12 months. The most used approaches were meditation, yoga, and massage therapy. CIH use by those with long COVID was significantly associated with younger age, female sex, higher education level, having health insurance coverage, higher household income level, receiving three or more COVID-19 vaccination doses, ever having asthma, and ever having an anxiety or depression diagnosis. Conclusions: Long COVID represents a major challenge for patients, health care providers, health care systems, economies, and global public health. CIH approaches may play an important role in symptom management for some patients, and additional research is needed to identify which modalities are most effective. Patients and health care providers may benefit from better information about the available options for treatment.

Ethan Frome's Poly Pessimism

This article explores the theory and practice of non-monogamy at the turn of the twentieth century across a range of texts, including anarchist periodicals, mainstream newspapers, and literary fiction. Moving from utopian to ambivalent representations of multipartner relationships, it turns to a canonical novel to explore a perspective we might call poly pessimism, which not only critiques monogamy but exposes the systems that make non-monogamous alternatives equally unlivable. Edith Wharton's Ethan Frome (1911) offers a blistering naturalist account of the constraints of monogamous marriage as the organizing institution of care work under capitalism, but the monstrous menáge à trois revealed at the novel's end suggests only the multiplication of domestic duty and the expansion of marriage and the private home rather than their abolition. Both in its sexual utopianism and its calls for the practical reconfiguration of home life and the economies of care, critical non-monogamy at the turn of the twentieth century holds an important position in a tradition of radical thought that connects antebellum socialisms to more recent liberation agendas.

The Urgent Call for Academic Action: Rebooting SDGs to Reset Our Future

This manuscript, presented at GEEF2024, emphasizes the critical role of academia in revitalizing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to address current global challenges. The SDGs, adopted in 2015, aim to eradicate poverty and promote sustainable development by 2030. However, progress has stalled due to financial constraints, governance issues, the COVID-19 pandemic, and geopolitical crises such as the Russian–Ukraine war. The COVID-19 pandemic has had multifaceted impacts, reversing poverty reduction trends and disrupting education and energy investments. It has also exacerbated social inequalities, leading to the conceptualization of COVID-19 as a syndemic, an ecodemic, and an econodemic. These terms highlight the pandemic's complex interplay with preexisting health issues, environmental degradation, and economic disparities. Geopolitical crises have further hindered SDG progress by disrupting food and energy supplies and diverting resources from sustainable development initiatives. Climate change, marked by unprecedented heatwaves and natural disasters, poses additional threats to achieving the SDGs. The need for carbon neutrality and effective international cooperation is more urgent than ever before. In this context, universities play a crucial role in advancing the SDGs through research, innovation, and community engagement. Engaged universities align their research agendas with the SDGs, fostering interdisciplinary collaboration and developing solutions to global challenges. Yonsei University's Institute for Global Engagement and Empowerment (IGEE) exemplifies this approach with its Yonsei SDGs Initiative. By analyzing research outputs via natural language processing, the initiative aligns academic activities with SDGs, particularly in health and well-being. The GEEF2024 conference underscored the importance of innovative strategies and international cooperation in achieving the SDGs. Discussions highlighted the need to address mental health crises, low birth rates, and the care economy's undervaluation. The conference also emphasized the necessity of inclusive development strategies that reflect the perspectives and priorities of Africa and Asia.In conclusion, universities must integrate social engagement into their core missions to remain relevant and impactful. By prioritizing research, teaching, and services that contribute to sustainable development, academia can play a pivotal role in overcoming global challenges and achieving the SDGs.

Nun of the river: The material and spiritual economies of small hydropower in rural Tanzania

This article examines the significance of hydroelectric mini-grids owned and operated by Catholic sisterhoods in rural Tanzania, situating them within a broader context of energy transition and environmental justice. The Tanzanian state is betting that mini-grids can effectively supplement the national grid’s limited reach; since 2010 it has invested considerable effort in developing a regulatory framework that streamlines licensing procedures and specifies feed-in tariffs. Today, the field is wide open and a range of ownership models – community, private, state-owned – are unfolding on the ground with variable results regarding their financial sustainability, environmental impact, and developmental outcomes. Though often overlooked in this discourse, missions, churches, abbeys, and convents have a history of operating run-of-the-river power stations and other off-grid systems that stretches back into the colonial era. Such infrastructures anchor material and spiritual economies of rain, care, and cash that straddle both community and commercially oriented modes of provisioning. Their continued presence suggests that in some ways this new paradigm of decentralized energy provision builds upon long-standing historical logics of patronage and political authority in marginal areas.

The Political Economy of Care: A Developmental Perspective

The Political Economy of Care: A Developmental Perspective

Caring During COVID-19: A Study of Intersectionality and Inequities in the Care Economy in 16 Countries.

Carers were disproportionately harmed in the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite facing an increased risk of contracting the virus, they continued in frontline roles in care services and acted as "shock absorbers" for their families and communities. In this article, we apply an intersectional lens to examine care work and the structural factors disadvantaging carers during COVID-19 through a comparative case study analysis of 16 low-, middle-, and high-income countries. Data on each country was collected through a qualitative framework during 2021-2022. We found that while carers everywhere were predominantly women with low incomes and precarious employment, other factors were at play in shaping their experiences. Moreover, government responses to mitigate the direct impact of the pandemic have created local and global disparities affecting those working in this sector. Our findings reveal how oppressive social structures such as race, class, caste, and migration status converged in contextually specific ways to shape the gendered nature of care within and between different countries. We call for a better understanding of the multiple axes of inequalities experienced by carers to inform crisis mitigations, coupled with long-term strategies to address social inequities in the care economy and to promote gender equality.

The political economy of senior care in China: theorising with Chinese feminisms

This article explores the political economy of eldercare labour and the gendered politics of care work in China. Building on insights from research conducted in 2016–17 in Shanghai, we argue that gendered regimes of productive and reproductive labour, processes of class formation and economic reforms articulate with a regime of differential urban citizenship rights – urban and rural hukou – in shaping and influencing the lived experience of paid eldercare workers. As a framework for understanding ‘who cares’ in local eldercare labour markets in China, we follow recent work interweaving social reproduction theory (SRT) and intersectionality. In conversation with those debates, we experiment with mobilising intersectionality alongside SRT as we explore these eldercare workers’ paths into the sector, but argue that attention to the Chinese context and Chinese feminist contributions can also transform SRT and intersectional approaches through historically and materially grounded analyses of evolving relations of exploitation and oppression. This approach enriches the feminist political economy of paid eldercare through attention to who is channelled into this work in one of the world’s largest, and fastest-ageing, economies.

Gender labor segregation in the care economy: needs research and solutions

The purpose of the research to determine the needs and workload of people who provide free care for their elderly relatives at home. Methodology – a mixed method was applied, which included an electronic individual questionnaire with open and closed questions among 201 residents of Kazakhstani urban and rural areas. Originality / value of the research - the first study in Kazakhstan aimed at identifying the needs and the time use of people engaged in unpaid care for their elderly relatives. Findings: A social and demographic portrait of a caregiver for an older adult at home was composed, the share of institutional, paid and unpaid care in households and the distribution of household workload between spouses were estimated, and the perception of gender equality in families was defi ned. The study showed that the basic needs of people caring for their older relatives at home included benefi ts and payments, services of a public social worker /compensation for care assistant services, a solid pension, an increase in the caregiver’s social status, free medicines and medical care. A shortage of institutional care services for older people in Kazakhstan has been identifi ed, and recommendations for developing a national care system have been proposed.

National action on antimicrobial resistance and the political economy of health care

ABSTRACT Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) is one of the biggest threats to human health in the twenty-first century. A key dimension of global governance in this domain consists of encouraging governments to create national action plans (NAPs) aimed at improving awareness of AMR, improving knowledge through surveillance and research, reducing infection, optimising the use of antimicrobial medicines, and investing in new drugs, vaccines and other interventions. The adoption and implementation of NAPs occur in the context of great political and institutional diversity across countries, and this article examines the consequences of different ways of financing health care. We expect the implementation of NAPs to be more successful in optimising antibiotics use when governments play a larger role in financing health care compared to private expenditure. An analysis of patterns of antibiotic consumption in 191 countries between 2000 and 2018 supports the hypothesis.

Reviewing feminist macroeconomics for the twenty-first century

Feminist macroeconomics draws on the notion that the gender system is both cause and consequence of macroeconomic structures, outcomes, and policies. In contrast, mainstream and heterodox macroeconomics have done little to integrate gender as an analytical tool in macro-modelling. This paper defines the subfield of feminist macroeconomics, explores its origins, and provides a systematic review of its literature. Drawing on Seguino (2013), the paper divides the subfield in three main strands: (i) feminist growth theory and gender dimensions of macro-level policies, (ii) macro-modelling and theoretical foundations of the care economy, and (iii) social infrastructure and intra-household allocation. The paper discusses potential ways to expand the foci of feminist macroeconomic research and considers challenges to the subfield such as methodological issues regarding male-biased metrics and limited data availability and the tensions with mainstream approaches to gender and the macroeconomy.

지역사회 통합돌봄 맞춤형 인재 양성 방안 연구

Korea has experienced a rapid increase in demand for care due to its aging population at an unprecedented pace. However, it is not able to adequately respond to the rapidly increasing demand and needs of the elderly due to its facilities, hospital-oriented care systems, and segmental service delivery systems. In response to these challenges, specific programs have been developed to address the increasing number of individuals in need of care. These programs aim to develop a curriculum in universities and establish a network to cultivate professional manpower with the necessary knowledge and skills. Additionally, they seek to establish win-win cooperation between local governments and universities to revitalize the care economy. To achieve this, the latest information on the necessity and problems of integrated care in the community has been extracted using various research methods such as scope-grasping literature review, systematic literature review, and government policy data review, commonly used in the field of social science. This information has been used to develop a regular curriculum model for universities, specialized multi-job-linked education, a practical model of small-scale degree courses, and a strategy for establishing the role and governance of universities and local governments. These initiatives aim to supplement the blind spots in existing care services and provide care services that are suitable for the unique characteristics of the Gwangju area.

Updated Surveillance Metrics and History of the COVID-19 Pandemic (2020-2023) in the Middle East and North Africa: Longitudinal Trend Analysis.

This study updates the COVID-19 pandemic surveillance in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) we first conducted in 2020 with 2 additional years of data for the region. The objective of this study is to determine whether the MENA region meets the criteria for moving from a pandemic to endemic. In doing so, this study considers pandemic trends, dynamic and genomic surveillance methods, and region-specific historical context for the pandemic. These considerations continue through the World Health Organization (WHO) declaration of the end of the public health emergency for the COVID-19 pandemic on May 5, 2023. In addition to updates to traditional surveillance data and dynamic panel estimates from the original study by Post et al, this study used data on sequenced SARS-CoV-2 variants from the Global Initiative on Sharing All Influenza Data (GISAID) to identify the appearance and duration of variants of concern. We used Nextclade nomenclature to collect clade designations from sequences and Pangolin nomenclature for lineage designations of SARS-CoV-2. Finally, we conducted a 1-sided t test to determine whether regional weekly speed of COVID-19 spread was greater than an outbreak threshold of 10. We ran the test iteratively with 6 months of data from September 4, 2020, to May 12, 2023. The speed of COVID-19 spread for the region had remained below the outbreak threshold for 7 continuous months by the time of the WHO declaration. Acceleration and jerk were also low and stable. Although the 1- and 7-day persistence coefficients remained statistically significant and positive, the weekly shift parameters suggested the coefficients had most recently turned negative, meaning the clustering effect of new COVID-19 cases became even smaller in the 2 weeks around the WHO declaration. From December 2021 onward, Omicron was the predominant variant of concern in sequenced viral samples. The rolling t test of the speed of spread equal to 10 became entirely insignificant from October 2022 onward. The COVID-19 pandemic had far-reaching effects on MENA, impacting health care systems, economies, and social well-being. Although COVID-19 continues to circulate in the MENA region, the rate of transmission remained well below the threshold of an outbreak for over 1 year ahead of the WHO declaration. COVID-19 is endemic in the region and no longer reaches the threshold of the pandemic definition. Both standard and enhanced surveillance metrics confirm that the pandemic had transitioned to endemic by the time of the WHO declaration.

The Care Economy: A Catalyst for Inclusive and Sustainable Growth

The Care Economy: A Catalyst for Inclusive and Sustainable Growth

Double-Duty Carers' Health and Wellbeing during COVID-19: Exploring the Role of Mobility of the Care Economy in Southern Ontario, Canada.

Double-Duty Carers (DDCs) refer to people who work in the healthcare industry while also providing unpaid care to relatives, friends, or neighbours. The expectations placed on DDCs is expected to grow, and these employees already experience a high caring burden. As such it is important to understand how best to support their health and wellbeing. This paper explores DDCs' wellbeing during the COVID-19 pandemic, focusing an understudied factor: their mobility constraints. Following the Mobility of the Care Economy framework and a qualitative research design, it does so through a thematic analysis of 16 semi-structured interviews with female DDCs in Southern Ontario, Canada. Once data saturation was reached, three mobility pathways during the pandemic were identified, all of which negatively affected DDCs wellbeing. First, some COVID-19 policies (e.g., testing requirements) resulted in increased mobility demands and increased spatiotemporal constraints. Second, the closure of institutions that care for dependents (schools, daycares, day centres) resulted in forced reduced mobility, which increased financial stress. Finally, indirect mobility effects were identified: the reduced mobility of other informal carers increased the workload and emotional strain on DDCs. The paper concludes with a discussion of mobility-related policies that could improve DDC wellbeing.

A moral economy of care: How clinical discourses perpetuate Indigenous-specific discrimination and racism in western Canadian emergency departments.

Recent research has unveiled the pervasiveness with which Indigenous patients are subjected to racialized stereotypes within the Canadian health system. Because discrimination in health care is associated with poor health outcomes and undertreated illness, there is a need to better understand how racism is perpetuated systemically in order to rectify the policies, practices, and attitudes that enable it. This article outlines a moral economy of care in emergency departments in western Canada by exploring the discourses that medical professionals employ when discussing cases of medical racism. While these discourses respond to the everyday realities of working in hospitals, they are also rooted in the colonial genealogy of health care in Canada and perpetuated by neoliberal shifts in health care services. By exploring the moral economy of care, this article sheds light on the way pervasive discourses contribute to reproducing and circulating Indigenous-specific racism and its role in decision-making.

The impact of different corticosteroids in hospitalised patients with severe COVID-19 pneumonia: a retrospective observational study

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic created havoc on health care systems and economies worldwide. Corticosteroids have been shown to be effective in the management of COVID-19. Methods: A retrospective observational study was conducted on 311 patients meeting the inclusion criteria at the Augustus Long Hospital, Trinidad and Tobago between July-December 2021. Data was classified into three treatment groups: low dose dexamethasone, high dose dexamethasone and methylprednisolone pulse therapy. The primary outcomes were the 28-day mortality and need for invasive mechanical ventilation and the secondary outcome was the length of hospital stay. The patient cohort was also classified into simple oxygen and high flow oxygen groups and a subgroup analysis was also performed. Results: There were no significant statistical differences between age, gender, vaccination status and co-morbidities between the treatment groups. However, there were significant differences in the ethnic ratios amongst the high dose dexamethasone and methylprednisolone treatment groups (East Indians to Africans; 61.7%vs. 37%; 72.9% vs.25.4% respectively; p=0.02). In patients receiving simple oxygen on admission, those who were treated with low dose dexamethasone when compared to high dose dexamethasone and methylprednisolone, had the lowest 28-day mortality (15.3% vs. 40.9% vs. 40% respectively; p< 0.001), lowest need for IMV (0.7% vs. 9.1% vs. 40% respectively; p< 0.001) and the shortest length of hospital stay (median [IQR] days; 7[12-5], 11[22-7], 16[27-14] respectively; p< 0.001). In patients receiving high flow oxygen, those treated with methylprednisolone had the lowest 28-day mortality (45.8%), when compared to the high dose dexamethasone (59.5%) and low dose dexamethasone (81%) groups; however, these results were not statistically significant (p = 0.053). Conclusion: In our study, patients receiving simple oxygen had better clinical outcomes when treated with low dose dexamethasone compared to higher dose corticosteroids. Methylprednisolone pulse therapy may be beneficial in patients requiring high flow oxygen; but further studies are needed.

The Care Economy al América Latina: A Multi-scalar Feminist Project

Abstract Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) created an opening to put the care economy on the global agenda, but the idea found particularly fertile ground in Latin America and the Caribbean well before COVID. This article examines the way the idea and practice of a care economy has been developed by feminists in the region. It looks at the role played by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean and the triennial Regional Conferences on Women in putting it on the regional agenda. Turning to the Uruguayan example, it looks at how feminists were able successfully to push for a national care system, using the idea of the care economy as a coalition magnet. When facing blockages at the national scale elsewhere, however, Latin American feminists have adopted a multi-scalar strategy, finding openings especially at the local scale, as the examples of Bogotá and Mexico City suggest.