Hardest Hit Research Articles

Digital Supply Chain Exploration (DSC) in Rural and Sub-Urban Livestock Ventures

In both the domestic and global markets, the rapid development of the digital economy has become a major distraction. As well as middle economic units that bear business risks, small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are also affected. Nonetheless, SMEs can take advantage of the disruption in order to compete with large, industrial businesses rather than invest overseas. Amidst a very gloomy economic climate, digitalization is considered one of the best alternatives and suggestions to ensure that businesses can survive. Agricultural and livestock sectors, especially micro-farmers in suburban and rural areas, have been hardest hit. As well as the challenges they have long faced with digitalization, the number of products they require has decreased drastically as well. From this point of departure, this study is conducted to assess the readiness of micro-farm entrepreneurs (MLEs) towards digitalization embrace digitalization and examine the impact of digital adoption on their business operations. A random sampling method was employed on the MLE in various sub-towns in Selangor, namely Kuala Selangor, Sabak Bernam and Hulu Selangor, from 2020 to 2021. Using the method of analysis, instruments are verified and coefficients tested. The results showed that MLEs are using digital platforms to promote their products and connect with their business ecosystem. In spite of this, they face the challenge of ensuring further improvements to their infrastructure and the capabilities of digitalization in contributing to value without posing high risks or costs. This study suggests that further studies have to look at and evaluated rural entrepreneurs using a triangulation approach of data and broader subjects.

Thinking with Nancy Fraser in understanding the impact of online learning and support during the Covid19 pandemic.

The Covid-19 pandemic has changed the face of Higher Education Institutions (HEI) in profound ways. Since 2020 HEI’s have been forced to think creatively and quickly about how to respond to arising challenges of completing the academic year and ensuring throughput and retention of students. Historically Disadvantaged Institutions (HDIs) have been hard hit in respect of resources and the under-preparedness of the student cohort who are attracted to HDIs to take on the challenge of online learning. This article uses mixed methods approach, which includes survey data to measure service delivery and an auto-ethnographic approach using the observations and reflections of the author to discuss the impact of online learning and support during the Covid-19 pandemic. Utilizing Nancy Fraser’s model of social justice, which focuses on the concept of participatory parity the paper will using the economic and cultural dimension provide an understanding of the constraints and enablements that impacted student’s ability to access online learning and support.

Employment Decline During the Great Recession: the Role of Firm Size Distribution

Abstract Over 8,000,000 jobs were lost in the Great Recession, creating widespread economic hardship. This paper documents a novel and robust empirical regularity that highly concentrated local labour markets experienced larger employment declines during the Great Recession. Through setting up a model with heterogeneous firms facing idiosyncratic productivity shocks, I show that firm size distribution summarised by the Herfindahl-Hirschman index plays a crucial role in the reallocation of workers, and it magnifies negative idiosyncratic shocks and attenuates positive ones. I undertake a series of empirical tests to rule out alternative explanations, and show that large employment losses in concentrated labour markets are not driven by highly concentrated industry locations being hit harder during the Great Recession, having smaller labour markets or higher firm leverage ratios. The effect of concentration level is larger in sectors with higher labour supply elasticity, or a higher variance of productivity shocks, and rises during the Great Recession compared to other periods, consistent with my model’s predictions.

Comparative Analysis of Financial Performance in Banking Companies in ASEAN-5 Countries before and during the Covid-19 Pandemic

The Covid-19 pandemic had a very bad impact on the world economy, which caused global economic growth to experience a decline of 3%, while developing countries were the hardest hit, with an average economic decline of 4%, some even more than 6.5 %. This study aims to analyze the financial performance of banks in ASEAN-5 countries between before and during the Covid-19 Pandemic. The method of comparing banking financial performance is by using the CAMEL method with a research sample of banking sub-sector companies listed on the stock exchange in each ASEAN-5 country. The results showed that there were significant differences in banking performance in ASEAN-5 countries, where two variables, namely the non-performing loan and operational efficiency ratio variable as a proxy for Assets and Earnings respectively did not have a significant difference. In general, the difference in bank health performance was due to the Covid-19 pandemic; many banks implemented policies that were adaptive to developments in the Covid-19 case, such as credit restructuring. On the other hand, the risk of bad credit has also increased due to the economic recession which has caused people to be unable to finance their obligations.

INVOLUNTARY JOB LOSS AND GENDERED HEALTH OUTCOMES IN MIDDLE AGE AND LATER LIFE: A LIFE COURSE ANALYSIS

Abstract Job loss is associated with a range of negative health outcomes. However, the causality of job loss and poor health is unclear, due to issues of endogeneity and reverse causality (i.e., adverse health causing job loss). We also need a better understanding of the long-term effects of job loss, and how the life stage in which job loss occurred yields different health outcomes for women and men in later life. To address these gaps, we take advantage of a quasi-experimental setting — the policy-driven layoffs of the State-Owned-Enterprises (SOEs) during the 1990s – mid-2000s in urban China. Using the life history survey of the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study 2014 and the 2015 wave, we examine the long-term effects of job loss on self-rated health (scored 1 – 5) of individuals in middle age and later life (aged 45+). After controlling for individual childhood health, life-time work history, as well as demographics and socioeconomic status, results from linear regressions show that overall, job loss from SOEs reduces self-rated health by 0.12 (p < .05) for both women and men. However, job loss hurts females’ self-rated health the most when job loss occurred in early-life, a life stage in which childbearing and child caregiving were most intensive (aged 35 or earlier; β = -0.24, p < .05), whereas males’ self-rated health is hardest hit if job loss occurred in mid-life (aged 36 – 45; β = -0.35, p < .01). The results suggest that involuntary job loss produce gendered health outcomes due to gendered life courses.

APS PERSPECTIVES ON CHALLENGES AND STRATEGIES SERVING CLIENTS DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC SURGE

Abstract The initial surge of the COVID-19 pandemic and public health measures in response dramatically impacted Adult Protective Services’ (APS) ability to conduct investigations and provide services, requiring agencies to quickly adapt. Our goal was to describe challenges for APS and strategies they developed to respond. We conducted 6 focus groups and 7 interviews during March-April 2021 used a semi-structured topic guide, with 31 participants from APS leadership, supervisors, and case workers in New York City, a community hard hit by the initial COVID surge. Focus groups and interviews were recorded and transcribed, with data analyzed to identify themes. Participants identified 9 major challenges, including: clients using concern about COVID-19 to refuse APS workers’ access to their home, necessity to perform home visits/wellness checks on behalf of other agencies who had suspended home visits, and dependence on in-office activities including receiving paper mail. Participants reported 30 formal and informal strategies adopted to address challenges. These included 13 focusing on maximizing client engagement while maintaining client and APS worker safety, such as: adding a pre-investigation before a home visit to assess COVID-19 risk/exposure, offering clients masks and hand sanitizer to build trust, and close collaboration with other agencies/programs including joint visits. Also, 17 strategies were reported to allow for remote work and support staff, including: modifying processes to replace paper mail with electronic communication/processing, offering counseling services, formally recognizing excellent performance, and leadership reaching out personally to check on staff members. These findings may inform APS planning for future large-scale societal disruptions.

Customer Satisfaction, Revisit Intention and Word of Mouth in the Restaurant Business

Restaurant businesses were hard hit by the pandemic over the last few years. The prolonging situation calls for appropriate remedial considerations. This paper attempts to predict the revisit intention and word-of-mouth using customer satisfaction. The data from 399 respondents were collected using mail survey immediately after the hit of COVID-19. Firstly, the result from linear regression of customer satisfaction on their revisit intention suggests that the customer satisfaction is the crux of customer retention in restaurant business. Secondly, the logistic regression of customer satisfaction on word-of-mouth reveals that word-of-mouth is likely to take place when the customers are dissatisfied with the restaurant services. Contrary to this, word-of-mouth communication is less likely to happen when the customers are happy with the restaurant services.

Coping and Social Resilience during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Qualitative Follow-Up Study among Healthcare Workers in Norwegian Public In-Home Services.

Healthcare workers (HCWs) are central and serve in the frontlines when epidemics threaten public health. Thus, certain communities may be hardest hit by these challenges. Interventions supporting HCWs are important, and to develop these, understanding their experiences is essential. To explore how HCWs in Norwegian public in-home services experienced work during the COVID-19 pandemic over time. A longitudinal qualitative study with two data collections approximately one year apart (2021 and 2022) was performed. Individual interviews were conducted with HCWs. The analysis resulted in six main themes: Changing everything, Redefining 'necessary tasks', Distancing and loneliness, Cooperation and coordination, More infections and fewer worries and Lessons for the future. These indicate capabilities and processes, how they are evolving over time, and outcomes. The first two themes focus on the first period of the pandemic, the next two on the ongoing intermediate period, and the final two cover the last period. The HCWs' narratives have demonstrated their collective coping based on adaptive and transformative capacities. Further, they have enlisted experienced social resilience in their strategies for coping with the COVID-19 challenges.

Nowcasting unemployment rate during the COVID-19 pandemic using Twitter data: The case of South Africa.

The global economy has been hard hit by the COVID-19 pandemic. Many countries are experiencing a severe and destructive recession. A significant number of firms and businesses have gone bankrupt or been scaled down, and many individuals have lost their jobs. The main goal of this study is to support policy- and decision-makers with additional and real-time information about the labor market flow using Twitter data. We leverage the data to trace and nowcast the unemployment rate of South Africa during the COVID-19 pandemic. First, we create a dataset of unemployment-related tweets using certain keywords. Principal Component Regression (PCR) is then applied to nowcast the unemployment rate using the gathered tweets and their sentiment scores. Numerical results indicate that the volume of the tweets has a positive correlation, and the sentiments of the tweets have a negative correlation with the unemployment rate during and before the COVID-19 pandemic. Moreover, the now-casted unemployment rate using PCR has an outstanding evaluation result with a low Root Mean Square Error (RMSE), Mean Absolute Percentage Error (MAPE), Symmetric MAPE (SMAPE) of 0.921, 0.018, 0.018, respectively and a high R2-score of 0.929.

The task ahead for Labour if it came to power

The task ahead for Labour if it came to power

Utilisation of antenatal care and skilled delivery services among mothers in Nanton District of Northern Ghana: a mixed-method study protocol

IntroductionMaternal morbidity and mortality are a global phenomenon with devastating effects on low-income and middle-income countries among which sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) is the hardest hit. Low utilisation of maternal health...

Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Health.

Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Health.

Covid-19 And Movie Theaters

The Entertainment Industry underwent a drastic change during the Covid-19 pandemic. The movie theater industry was especially hard hit, as it temporarily lost most of its customer base to general panic and uncertainty as a result of the pandemic. This study aims to determine what long-term effect the Covid-19 pandemic has had on the Movie Theater Industry. To assess any change in the public's view of Movie Theaters, an online survey was distributed among 11th and 12th graders in a West Texas High School, which asked participants to respond to a set of questions inquiring about past and present entertainment habits and expectations. Analysis of the responses demonstrated that the opinion and future likelihood of visiting movie theaters for entertainment had decreased notably, over the course of the pandemic, potentially giving rise to more convenient entertainment alternatives, and implying that the movie theater industry will likely need to adapt and alter the experience they provide in order to retain their audience. Further research is needed to look closer into the economic and social impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Strengthening or Restricting? Explaining the Covid-19 Pandemic’s Configurational Effects on Companies’ Sustainability Strategies and Practices

We explore the Covid-19 pandemic’s impact on companies’ sustainability strategies and practices. Prior research has identified a number of factors that shape such effects, including crisis severity, resource slack, and prior investments, but their interactions have not been given much attention. We thus collected qualitative data on 25 companies in four African countries, which we analyzed inductively and iteratively through cross-case comparison and with fuzzy set Qualitative Comparative Analysis. We identify two pathways associated with strengthening responses (“building on strengths” and “governance gap-filling”) and three associated with restricting responses (“hard hit,” “low-road business-as-usual,” and “bunkering down”). Our findings enhance our understanding of organizational responses to crises by attending to configurational effects, by elaborating the role of prior sustainability investments, and by foregrounding the relevance of governance contexts. We describe implications for future research and managers, investors, and sustainability initiatives such as the United Nations Global Compact.

Sustainability Preferences Under Stress: Evidence from COVID-19

AbstractWe document fragile demand for socially responsible investments (SRIs) by retail mutual fund investors. Using COVID-19 as an economic shock, we show funds with higher sustainability ratings experienced sharper declines in retail flows during the pandemic, controlling for fund characteristics. The decline in retail SRI fund flows is sharper than that of institutional flows, more pronounced when economies are hit harder by COVID-19, and unlikely to be driven by fund performance, past flows and size, or shifting investor attention. Corroborated by out-of-sample survey evidence, our findings highlight the high sensitivity of SRI demand by retail investors with respect to income shocks.

Audit of Clinical Care Received by COVID-19 Patients Treated at a Tertiary Care Hospital of Nepal in 2021.

Like the world over, Nepal was also hard hit by the second wave of COVID-19. We audited the clinical care provided to COVID-19 patients admitted from April to June 2021 in a tertiary care hospital of Nepal. This was a cohort study using routinely collected hospital data. There were 620 patients, and most (458, 74%) had severe illness. The majority (600, 97%) of the patients were eligible for admission as per national guidelines. Laboratory tests helping to predict the outcome of COVID-19, such as D-dimer and C-reactive protein, were missing in about 25% of patients. Nearly all (>95%) patients with severe disease received corticosteroids, anticoagulants and oxygen. The use of remdesivir was low (22%). About 70% of the patients received antibiotics. Hospital exit outcomes of most (>95%) patients with mild and moderate illness were favorable (alive and discharged). Among patients with severe illness, about 25% died and 4% were critically ill, needing further referral. This is the first study from Nepal to audit and document COVID-19 clinical care provision in a tertiary care hospital, thus filling the evidence gap in this area from resource-limited settings. Adherence to admission guidelines was excellent. Laboratory testing, access to essential drugs and data management needs to be improved.

Is Property an Insurance or an Additional Burden? Financial Stress Among Homeowners in Europe

A crucial function of wealth is to protect individuals from the consequences of adverse life events. However, sometimes wealth also implies additional financial risks. In addition to the insurance function of homeownership (the most common form of wealth), we therefore also examine financial squeezes that reflect the indebtedness and social embeddedness of homeowners and limit their options for dealing with social risks. A third hypothesis expects a trade‐off between social protection and homeownership. Taking the example of unemployment, we examine the effects of short‐term unemployment on the perceived financial situation of households based on data derived from EU‐SILC for 27 European countries. It can be shown that debt‐free homeownership reduces financial stress in the case of unemployment compared to tenants and indebted owners. A debt‐free home thus offers an additional buffer and insurance against the financial consequences of unemployment. However, indebted homeowners are particularly hard hit by unemployment because they have to use all their financial resources to pay off their mortgages. Finally, we did not find a trade‐off but a cumulation of advantages due to homeownership and generous unemployment benefits in countries with high net replacement rates.

Pandemic Meets Endemic: The Role of Social Inequalities and Failing Public Health Policies as Drivers of Disparities in COVID-19 Mortality among White, Black, and Hispanic Communities in the United States of America.

The COVID-19 pandemic placed the United States of America (U.S.) under enormous strain, leaving it with higher deaths during the first wave of the outbreak compared to all other advanced economies. Blacks and Hispanics were among those hardest hit by the virus-a fact attributed to enduring problems related to the social determinants of health adversely affecting Communities of Color (CoC). In this study, we ask which distinct factors relating to policy stringency and community vulnerability influenced COVID-19 mortality among Whites, Blacks, and Hispanics during the first year of the pandemic. To address this question, we utilized a mix of correlational and regression analyses. Findings point to the highly divergent impact of public policy and vulnerability on COVID-19 mortality. Specifically, we observed that state-led measures aimed at controlling the spread of the virus only improved mortality for Whites. However, pre-existing social determinants of health (i.e., population density, epidemiological and healthcare system factors) played a significant role in determining COVID-19 outcomes for CoC, even in the face of stringent containment measures by states. This suggests that state-led policy to address present and/or future public health crises need to account for the particular nature of vulnerability affecting Blacks and Hispanics in the U.S.

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the provision of instrumental help by older people across Europe.

The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020 introduced new challenges to social cohesion across Europe. Epidemiological control measures instituted in almost all European countries have impacted the possibility to provide help to others. In addition, individual characteristics contributed to whether individuals were able and willing to provide help to or receive help from others. Against this background, we focus on how private support networks of individuals aged 50 years and older across Europe were directly or indirectly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. The focus of the paper is on the supply side. While the older population has been mainly perceived as recipients of instrumental help in the COVID-19 pandemic, the paper examines the patterns of providing instrumental help to others by the older generations and their changes during the pandemic. Has the provision of instrumental help increased or decreased in the course of the COVID-19 crisis? Have the groups of recipients changed during the pandemic? What were key determinants for helping others in 2021 as compared to the first phase of the pandemic 1 year before? And how did this differ across countries with different degrees of affectedness by COVID-19? To answer these questions, we analyzed representative data from the Survey of Health, Aging and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) and, in particular, the two waves of the SHARE Corona Survey, fielded in 27 European countries and Israel in 2020 and 2021. Results based on data from more than 45,000 respondents aged 50+ showed that help from children to parents has strongly increased in the first phase of the pandemic, while the opposite (parents helping their children) has decreased-especially in countries that have been hit hardest by the pandemic in 2020. This changed with the continuing crisis. Instrumental help provided to non-kin that was common in Western Europe in the first phase of the pandemic, yielding an optimistic view of increasing solidarity after the outbreak of COVID-19, strongly decreased 1 year later. Our findings provide a contribution to comparative research on micro- and macro-determinants that are crucial for the understanding of intergenerational support in times of crisis.

Changing Skill Formation in Greece and Italy – Crisis-Induced Reforms in Light of Common Institutional Legacies

Context: After the Eurozone crisis unfolded a decade ago, comparative political economy has investigated reforms of public administration, labour market, welfare state and economic policy particularly in Southern European nations which were hit hardest by the crisis. However, analyses of skill formation reform, particularly vocational education and training (VET), have been scant, despite a common problem pressure for reforms emanating from stubbornly high rates of youth unemployment and similar legacies of statist VET. Approach: We investigate VET reforms brought underway in Greece and Italy during and in the aftermath of the crisis, asking how far apprenticeship-like forms of learning within their VET systems were strengthened. Empirically, we base our analysis on primary and secondary sources, having conducted semi-structured expert interviews in Greece and Italy in 2019. Results: We find that both countries attempted to strengthen the role of apprenticeship and work-based learning, but that politics differed across the two cases in the context of the Eurozone crisis. While in Italy, reforms were 'internalised' and shaped by domestic politics, Greek reforms were largely driven exogenously by the negotiations with the Troika. Conclusion: Although Italy and Greece have undertaken reforms to reduce the dominance of the state in VET provision by expanding apprenticeships and work-based learning, these do not amount to large scale changes to the dominant logic of school-based VET provision. In order to boost their potential in terms of practical learning both countries would need to continue on their reform pathways.