Loss Of Income Research Articles

Opening Pandora’s box: the making of cannabis tourism in Thailand

In 2022, Thailand became the first country in Asia to decriminalize the possession of cannabis. Despite the government’s unwillingness to legalize recreational cannabis or promote cannabis tourism, a recreational cannabis industry fueled by tourism quickly emerged on a large scale in just a few months after decriminalization. Through the tourism worldmaking theory, the article seeks to show how cannabis tourism has taken shape in a semi-legal context following the decriminalization of cannabis in Thailand. Through a qualitative methodology combining document analysis, semi-structured interviews, and active participant observation, it is shown that following legislative changes, a recreational tourism industry has rapidly developed alongside the medical cannabis industry in which an array of cannabis products and services for tourists have emerged in the country’s major tourist destinations, transforming the tourism landscape of these places. Cannabis tourism has grown rapidly despite legal restrictions and government rhetoric aimed at preventing recreational cannabis tourism. The article aims to show that after opening Pandora’s box through the decriminalization of cannabis, cannabis tourism has developed on its own where many market-driven actors capitalized on this new economic opportunity following years of loss of income due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The effects of environmental and non-environmental shocks on livelihoods and migration in Tanzania

Disruptive events and calamities can have major consequences for households in the predominantly agrarian communities of Eastern Africa. Here, we analyze the impacts of environmental and non-environmental shocks on migration in Tanzania using panel models and longitudinal data from the Tanzania National Panel Survey between 2008 and 2013. Shocks are defined as events that lead to losses in income, assets, or both. We find shocks resulting from changes in environmental conditions to be positively related to migration over time with more recent shocks exerting the strongest impact. According to our estimates, the probability of having a household member absent increases by 0.81% with each additional environmental shock encountered in the past 12 months. Different types of shocks have differential effects on migration with the strongest effects being observed for shocks with an immediate impact on household livelihoods, including through livestock losses and crop damage. Households in the sample are differently affected with rural, agriculturally dependent, and poor households without alternative income sources showing the strongest changes in their migration behavior in response to shocks. Our study adds important insights into the relationship between disruptive events and migration in Eastern Africa considering a broad time window and the compounding influence of different shock types. Our findings have a range of policy implications highlighting the need for a comprehensive perspective on household responses in times of distress that considers the interplay of different shock types as well as the role of context in shaping mobility patterns.

Dossier—Negotiating Urban Spaces: Access, Care and Confinement in Contemporary Gendered Performance

This dossier explores the ways in which theatre and performance practitioners across the globe have addressed the deeply gendered modes of differential access to public spaces, institutional support, and resources through their creative as well as activist work, during the pandemic and its aftermath. In the last three years, the pandemic has transformed experiences of urban space globally. Access to public space has always been gendered as well as shaped by geographical location, race, caste, class and sexual identity. These traditional modes of differential access have been radically reorganized by the isolation and uncertainty engendered by the global pandemic. While ‘working from home’ was certainly not an option for everyone (most notably, care-workers in an overwhelmingly feminized profession), confinement to domestic space also meant escalating incidents of gendered violence for others. Additionally, the lack of sustainable income opportunities meant, as contributions to this dossier will demonstrate, the stripping away of roofs from over the heads of vulnerable citizens, whether impoverished artistes in want of state support or migrant workers on an uncertain daily wage. Staying at home was no longer an option, because ‘home’ often ceased to exist as a viable shelter, whether literally or by implication. For performers and theatre-workers all over the world, it was a time of intensified precarity: not only a loss of employment and income, but also a growing sense of artistic and professional purposelessness. While some were able to reorient this bewilderment through virtual and digital performances, for many grassroots performers, especially in the global South, access to these modes of public engagement were limited. In countries like India, street theatre activists felt unable and unwilling to switch to the digital space, while the prohibition on public assembly struck an irrevocable blow to women's protest movements.

Human-autonomy collaboration in supervisory risk control of autonomous ships

This paper presents a method for developing and testing a risk-based control system, as a first step towards including the human supervisor explicitly in the design of the system. The result is a control system with improved decision-making capabilities compared to existing control systems. The methodology presented in the paper uses the Systems Theoretic Process Analysis (STPA) to analyse the risks of an autonomous ship within its concept of operations (CONOPS), and a Human-STPA (H-STPA) is used to analyse human responsibilities and involvement. The STPA results are then used to construct a Bayesian belief network (BBN)-based risk model to assess the operational risk of the ship. This is represented as a risk cost, describing the expected cost of consequences caused by potential hazardous events. This cost is combined with fuel costs, operations costs, and the potential loss of income if new missions are not undertaken using a supervisory risk controller (SRC). The SRC is capable of making decisions about how the ship should be safely operated and notifies the human supervisor in due time when it is necessary for them to take control. The last part of the methodology presented in this paper is testing the control system using a set of verification objectives based on results from the STPA and H-STPA. A case study involving an autonomous cargo ship with a human supervisor located in a remote operation center (ROC) is included; it shows that the proposed control system can operate the ship safely in different conditions and situations. By designing the SRC to notify the human supervisor before it reaches its operational limit, the ship is able to operate in a wider range of conditions compared to when just the autonomous control system is in charge. Hence, the proposed methodology shows promising results and provides useful insights related to shared control for autonomous ships.

Epidemics, pandemics and fertility change: responses to Zika and COVID-19 in Singapore

ABSTRACT Using longitudinal surveys on married Singaporean women of childbearing ages, we compared self-reported changes to fertility plans among 407 and 345 respondents after the 2016–2017 Zika and 2020 COVID-19 outbreaks, respectively. Zika associated with intentions to delay but not reduce childbearing, while COVID-19 was associated with both. Some women reported accelerating and increasing childbearing during COVID-19, with more intending to bring forward births as the pandemic persisted. Education was more predictive of changes in fertility plans during the pandemic compared to the Zika epidemic, and women who delayed childbearing due to Zika were more likely to further adjust timing of childbearing during COVID-19. We considered three possible explanations for changes to fertility plans: fear of infection, change in subjective wellbeing, and income loss, and find stronger effects of perceptions of the virus on downward revisions of fertility plans after the Zika epidemic but a larger role for stress and income loss during the pandemic, reflecting the latter’s wider economic and social impacts.

Short-term impact of climate change on labor market in China: Quantitative spatial analysis based on an oligopsony model

Assessing the impact of climate change on the economy is an important issue for designing climate policy. By constructing an oligopsony model to depict the incompleteness of the labor market and using the quantitative spatial model analysis method, we quantitatively estimated the short-term impact of climate change on the labor market in China. Then, to control climate change, the optimal climate change governance intensities (CCGI) of multi-governments satisfying CD preferences and Stackelberg game are designed and solved. The results show that climate change leads to a decrease in wages and labor supply in labor market equilibrium and a loss of market aggregate income and labor scale. Climate change has led to a shift in labor from the agricultural and dirty sectors to the clean sector. The regional labor distribution is also being “disrupted” due to climate change. Moreover, declining migration costs and increased subsidies help to reduce the negative impacts of climate change. The optimal CCGI of the central government is higher than that of the provincial government. The optimal CCGI is higher in the eastern provinces than in the central and western regions. Implementing CCGI would mitigate the negative climate change shocks to the labor market in China and increase welfare. The conclusions of this paper provide strong support for preventing climate change risks and actively participating in global climate change governance.

The effect of the Covid pension withdrawals and the Universal Guaranteed Pension on the income of the future retirees and its fiscal costs

Chile implemented large pension withdrawals during the pandemic relative to other countries. Afterwards, Chile increased non-contributory benefits in a quasi-universal scheme. Simulating the future pensions, I show that the average loss in contributory pension income is 27.9%, with losses of 23.9% and 31.4% for men and women, respectively. After accounting for public transfers, the average loss in total pension income is just 6.2%, with losses of 7.5% and 5.2% for men and women, respectively. Current retirees lost just 1.1% of their pension income after accounting for the government transfers. The state may end up covering 92% of the total value of the pension withdrawals through the increased transfers.

Work precarity, employment characteristics and health among Canada's long-term care and seniors' home workers during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted several issues among health care workers in Canada's long-term care and seniors' (LTCS) homes, including labour shortages, staff retention difficulties, overcrowding, and precarious working conditions. There is currently a lack of information on the health, well-being and working conditions of health care workers in LTCS homes - many of them immigrants - and a limited understanding of the relationship between them. This paper examines differences between immigrant and non-immigrant workers' health outcomes and precarious working conditions during the pandemic. The data were from the 2021 Survey on Health Care Workers' Experiences During the Pandemic, which collected information on LTCS home health care workers' (n=2,051) health, employment or work experiences, and working environment during the COVID-19 pandemic. Summary statistics and multivariable logistic regressions were conducted to examine the association between precarious work and workers' health (life stress, mental health and general health), stratified by immigrant status. Selected working characteristics were included in the regression models as covariates, namely occupation, number of locations worked, facility ownership status and number of years worked. Immigrant health care workers were more likely than non-immigrant health care workers to experience precarious work in LTCS homes. Precarious work - characterized by income loss, reduced hours of work, and unpaid leave - was associated with stress and poor general health among immigrant and non-immigrant workers in the sector. Employment precarity was also associated with poor mental health for immigrant workers, but there was no association for non-immigrant workers. Employment precarity and the health and well-being of health care workers warrants further attention, in particular among immigrants employed in the LTCS residential care sector.

English language requirement and educational inequality: Evidence from 16 million college applicants in China

This paper studies the unintended effect of English language requirement on educational inequality by investigating how the staggered rollout of English listening tests in China’s high-stakes National College Entrance Exam (NCEE) affected the rural–urban gap in college access. Leveraging administrative data covering the universe of NCEE participants between 1999 and 2003, we find that the introduction of English listening tests significantly lowered rural students’ exam score percentile ranks relative to their urban counterparts, resulting in a 30% increase in the rural–urban gap in college access. Our back-of-the-envelope calculations suggest that, as a result of this policy change, more than 54,000 rural students lost college seats to their urban peers between 1999 and 2003, and another 11,000 rural students who elite colleges could have admitted ended up in non-elite colleges, causing them significant future income losses.

Impact of neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder on employment and income in the United States.

We aim to characterize the sociodemographic and clinical factors associated with loss of jobs, income, and work hours in people with neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder (NMOSD) in the United States. A REDCap-based survey was administered to working-age NMOSD patients (18-70 years old) querying demographic information, symptoms, immunosuppression, work hours, income, and caregiver work (11/2022-07/2023). Regression models were developed using MATLAB. Of 127 participants (97 female; 55% AQP4-antibody, 19% MOG antibody; 69% Caucasian, 7% Hispanic), with an average diagnosis age of 38.7 years, average disease duration of 6.4 years, mean 3.1 attacks, and 94% of whom were treated with immune system-directed therapy (53% rituximab, 8% satralizumab, 7% eculizumab, 6% mycophenolate mofetil, 4% inebilizumab, 2% azathioprine, 10% IVIg, 10% other), 56% lost a job due to NMOSD. Employment decreased 12% (80% pre- to 68% post-diagnosis). Thirty-six percent of participants said they no longer worked outside the home. Significant predictors for post-NMOSD diagnosis employment status included younger age, lower pain level, no walking aids, and having a job prediagnosis. Sixty-eight percent of those employed prediagnosis reduced their work hours, dropping an average of 18.4 h per month since being diagnosed (±10.1 h). Average annual income grew slowly at $1998 during the average 6.4 years of disease duration (14% of the value predicted by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics). Sixty percent of participants had a regular unpaid caregiver; 34% of caregivers changed their work hours or job to help manage NMOSD. We provide a structured analysis of the impact of NMOSD on employment, work hours, and income in the United States, demonstrating its major effect on the livelihoods of patients and their caregivers.

The Social, Economic, and International Relations Impact of the 2023 Israel-Hamas War

Hamas's attack on Israel on October 7th, 2023, is not the first of its type. The Israeli-Palestine tension can be traced back to 1947 following the UN Partition Plan that divided the British Mandate of Palestine into Jewish and Arab Nations. Following Britain’s withdrawal from the Peninsula, the Jewish leaders declared the State of Israel, sparking the first Arab-Israeli conflict and this tension has worsened over the years. We use Thomas Hobbes's Social Contract to explain the tension between both parties. According to Hobbes, man lives in a State of Nature which is characterized by war and the continuous fear of death. This fear of death is the reason why man enters into a contract (Social Contract). There have been diverse schools of thought as to the origin of the Israeli-Palestine tension. Some believe it is the 1947 UN Partition Plan, others believe it is the June 1967 war, while others believe it is religion. Regardless of the original cause, it is evident that both parties have retained severe casualties over the years. Hence, the purpose of this paper is to review the economic, social, and international relations consequences of the 2023 Israel-Hamas war. The current war has had several social consequences: refugee migrations, lack of basic survival necessities, withdrawal of medical aid groups, starving refugees, desolated cities, and allegations of rape and sexual torture. Economically, the war has led to the loss of income from economic activities, an increase in oil prices, reignited inflation, high-interest rates, increased government expenditures, and exchange rates. It has also impacted international relations among nations due to a split in support between Israel and Palestine. Nevertheless, there is an allowance for further study because this paper is limited only to the social, economic, and international relations impact of the war.

Transfers as a Means to Mitigate COVID-19 Impacts on Food Security: Evidence from Refugee and Host Communities Uganda

Uganda is home to some 1.5 million refugees. Its self-reliance policy welcomes refugees with freedom of movement and work; a piece of land for building a house and home-gardening; and social protection (food and cash transfers). While a progressive refugee policy, the onset of COVID-19 may complicate its effectiveness. This paper investigates the role of food and cash transfers in meeting negative consequences of the pandemic for both host and refugee communities. We do so by using a unique panel dataset covering the period from 2019 to 2021. Our evidence suggests that although transfers were widely used in refugee settlements prior to COVID-19, their use did not expand within the refugee nor host communities at the onset of the pandemic and, in fact, the transfer amounts declined. The evidence does not suggest that either form of transfer has a strong effect on food security or resilience although there is some evidence that cash transfers facilitate resilience. However, food transfers are associated with maintaining or increasing food security while cash transfers are more closely associated with resilience. Furthermore, food transfer seem to outperform cash transfers in responding to COVID-19 particularly when income loss due to COVID-19 is reported.

Job Loss and Financial Distress During COVID-19: The Protective Role of Emergency Savings

Nearly a quarter of U.S. households experienced job or income losses related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Liquid assets mitigate financial distress amidst financial shocks such as job loss, yet this relationship concerning the COVID-19 pandemic is unknown. Using a nationally representative sample of U.S. respondents (N= 4,765) who completed a survey in the early days of the pandemic, we examined pre-pandemic liquid assets as a moderator of the relationship between COVID-19-related job and income loss and financial distress such as difficulty meeting financial obligations and the use of high-cost financial resources. Estimates from propensity score-weighted linear probability models indicated that greater liquid assets lessened the probability of experiencing all eight measures of financial distress and moderated the effect of COVID-19-related job/income loss on five out of eight measures. These results hold when examining financial distress specifically attributed to COVID-19 and controlling for public program participation and Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act supports.

Spiritualitas Dan Resiliency Of Self Efficacy Pada Pekerja Seks Komersil Melalui Psikodrama

In August 2019, the Semarang City Government closed the Sunan Kuning localization. This community service aims to see a picture of spiritualism and resilience of self-efficacy in former female commercial sex workers who live in the Sunan Kuning area of ​​Semarang. Methods of using psychodrama. The participant profile shows that the majority are elementary school graduates at 53.8%, marital status is divorced at 61.5%. Observation results show that economic factors, loss of income as a prostitute, large number of children, separation from friends are the causes of sadness, anger, stress and feelings of fear after the closure of localization. Overall, psychodrama activities give rise to better thoughts and feelings, including being able to express sadness, a means of catharsis and the spirit of continuing entrepreneurship and becoming a better person.

The Role of Psychiatrists Corporeal Damage Assessment for Financial Compensation After Physical Injury in France

In recent years, there has been growing recognition of the significant impact of psychological and emotional injuries on the lives of individuals who have experienced physical trauma. The importance of psychiatric involvement in determining the extent of mental trauma and its impact on an individual's life will be highlighted, as well as the challenges faced by psychiatrists in making such assessments. Corporal damage assessment is a critical component of the process of financial compensation for individuals who have experienced physical injuries. In France, this process is governed by a complex legal framework that includes the Civil Code, the Social Security Code, and the Code of Criminal Procedure. These laws and regulations outline the various types of financial compensation that may be awarded to victims of physical injury, including medical expenses, loss of income, and compensation for pain and suffering. Given the increasing awareness of the importance of mental health, the role of psychiatrists in corporal damage assessment has become more significant. These mental health professionals are tasked with assessing psychological and emotional injuries, determining the extent of mental trauma, and evaluating the impact of physical injury on an individual's mental health. The challenges include distinguishing between pre-existing and injury-related mental health issues, overcoming the subjective nature of psychological assessment, and balancing patient advocacy with impartiality. Finally, this presentation will provide a series of case studies that illustrate the impact of psychiatrist involvement in financial compensation cases. These case studies will highlight examples of successful psychiatric assessments, as well as lessons learned from these cases. In conclusion, the presentation will emphasize the importance of the psychiatrist's role in corporal damage assessment and explore potential improvements and future directions for this field (Daligand, 1992).

Tourism industry shrinkage and the economic loss of China in the COVID pandemic years

ABSTRACT Tourism industry represents one of the industry sectors which are ravaged mostly by the COVID pandemic. This study attempts to systematically quantify the economic loss to China triggered by the shrinkage of tourism industry during two pandemic years, 2020 and 2021. For this purpose, we develop a double-sided spatial shrinking (DSSS) model to calculate the loss of regional domestic tourism income in China due to travel restrictions. Then the multi-regional input-output model (MRIO) and the computable general equilibrium (CGE) model are employed to estimate the aggregate loss to Chinese economies in both the short and long terms. Besides significant theoretical contributions, we suggest practical approaches to how to respond effectively to the pandemic shock.

Income Loss and Mental Health during the COVID-19 Pandemic in the United States-Investigating the Moderating Role of Race and Metro-Level Co-ethnic Density.

The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly impacted individuals' financial well-being and mental health. This study investigates the relationship between income loss and mental health outcomes during the pandemic, as well as the heterogeneity in this relationship by race/ethnicity and co-ethnic density in the metropolitan area. Using nationally representative Household Pulse Survey data, this study finds that income loss is associated with a heightened risk of depression and anxiety, even after controlling for individual and metropolitan-level characteristics. Co-ethnic density in metropolitan areas worsens the effects of income loss on depression and anxiety for Hispanics and non-Hispanic Blacks while residing in a metropolitan area with more Whites cushions the impact of income loss on depression and anxiety for non-Hispanic Whites. Overall, the study underscores the importance of considering the intersection of race/ethnicity and metropolitan-level co-ethnic density in exploring the influence of economic stressors on mental health.

Health inequities and societal costs for patients with fibromyalgia and their spouses: a Danish cohort study

ObjectiveTo assess the burden of illness of people with fibromyalgia (FM) and their spouses compared with selected match populations in Denmark.MethodsPopulation-based, cohort case-control study using data from Danish registries from...

COVID-19 pandemic stressors, familial discord, and anxiety among adolescents living with HIV in South Africa: pathways to non-adherence

ABSTRACT Adolescents living with HIV (ALHIV) have poorer adherence to antiretroviral treatment (ART). This study investigates the interconnectivity of stressors induced by the COVID-19 pandemic, anxiety and family dynamics on adolescents' adherence to ART. A telephone survey was conducted among 196 South African ALHIV previously enrolled in support groups. Generalized structural equations modeling was used to understand how pandemic-related stressors affected ART adherence. Respondents reported experiencing life stressors since the implementation of COVID-19 restrictions, including doing worse at school (32%), loss of household income (44%) and less food available (38%). Forty-two percent reported greater verbal aggression from adults at home and 60% experienced anxiety. The structural equations model demonstrated a direct path from experiencing life stressors to increased verbal aggression from caregivers, which led to anxiety and ultimately, poorer ART adherence. Each stressor experienced increased the odds of experiencing verbal aggression by 51% (OR=1.51, 95%CI=1.14-2.00) which, in turn, increased the odds of having anxiety four-fold (OR=4.1, 95%C =2.16-7.76). Anxiety was associated with a 74% reduction in the odds of being fully ART adherent (OR=0.26, 95%CI=0.08-0.81). COVID-19-induced stressors exacerbated the mental and physical vulnerability of ALHIV. Findings elucidate how both discord at home and anxiety can result in poorer ART adherence.

People’s Contrasting Attitudes Towards Universal Basic Income in Sweden and South Korea

Abstract The discourse on universal basic income varies widely across countries. In Sweden, public opinion is generally negative even in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic, and it is barely discussed on the public policy table. On the other hand, in South Korea, public opinion is not as negative as in Sweden, and basic income is actively raised as policy agenda. Our study based on survey results reaffirmed the contrasting attitudes of the Swedish and Suth Korean people regarding basic income and related tax increase. The basic income could appeal to the people in South Korea. On the contrary, there is little room for the introduction of basic income in Sweden. The analysis also revealed similarities within the difference. Those with high income, political-right orientation, high protection against income loss, and high tax burden would be more unfavourable toward introduction of basic income no matter which country they live in.