Unprecedented Recession Research Articles

Action is needed to tackle the clinical, psychological and socioeconomic impact of perinatal COVID-19.

The COVID‐19 pandemic has turned perinatal healthcare into a worldwide public health challenge. Although initial data did not demonstrate pregnancy as a more susceptible period to adverse outcomes of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus‐2 (SARS‐CoV‐2) infection, an increasing number of reports now certify maternal illness as a high‐risk condition for the development of maternal–fetal complications. Despite the rarity of SARS‐CoV‐2 vertical transmission, severe maternal illness might induce adverse perinatal and neonatal outcomes. Additionally, perinatal COVID‐19 data may raise concerns about long‐term harmful consequences to the offspring in the framework of non‐communicable diseases. The World Health Organisation, as well as scientific literature, consider the protection of the maternal–fetal dyad against COVID‐19 as a critical issue and, therefore, strongly promote and encourage the vaccination of pregnant and lactating women. Furthermore, the pandemic has triggered an unprecedented recession, leading to historic levels of unemployment and deprivation, while health, societal, economic and gender inequities particularly affecting low‐income and middle‐income countries, have increased. This mini‐review provides an updated brief report on historical, clinical, psychological and socioeconomic aspects of the COVID‐19 pandemic based on 10 lectures presented at the 9th Maria‐Delivoria‐Papadopoulos Perinatal Symposium, held virtually on 19 March 2022.

A case study of agri-food systems in rural Spain: Impacts, responses and institutional lessons

Galicia is one of Spain's leading regions regarding agricultural and livestock production. In the light of the COVID-19 crisis, the permeability to the economic shocks of these sectors led to an unprecedented recession, given the heterogeneity of their characteristics, resulting in widespread losses. The main objective of this article is to analyze the impact of COVID-19 in the agricultural and livestock sectors in Galicia and, at the same time, identify the degree of affectation in each of these sectors, determine the impact of the pandemic in each province and study the institutional responses to the COVID-19 crisis. For this purpose, financial analysis of these sectors will be carried out through a sample of 998 companies. The results show a variation in operating income of –16.41% in the agricultural sector and –9.15% in the livestock sector in Galicia, although they are mixed across the different provinces of the region. Despite the articulation of a network of public aids and the adoption of new commercialization strategies, there are sub-sectors with high losses, such as the ornamental plant industry and the subsector dedicated to the production of beef.

The Covid 19 Crisis and The Future of Bitcoin in E-Commerce

The spread of the coronavirus has devalued stock indices, lowered commodity prices such as oil, and chaos in financial markets around the world. Fiat currencies have plummeted as central banks injected too much money into affected economies, and an unprecedented recession has hit the world that central banks and financial institutions are unable to cope with. Bitcoin is a virtual currency whose production is the result of a time-consuming computational activity called exploration. This internati

Analyzing the Magnitude of Global Epidemiological Transition in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Need to Review the Current Healthcare Management Approach

Since after World War II, the world has been grappling with the grumbling rising prevalence and economic burden of non-communicable diseases (NCDs). The rise of these chronic diseases has reached an epidemic proportion and a melting point in many communities of the world. This has been made worse by the recent COVID-19 pandemic. While the world is still battling this debilitating reality, a more gruesome scenario is evolving in low-income and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs). Although these countries account for the highest poverty index in the world, they also account for a disproportionately higher burden of NCDs. More than 80% of NCD-related deaths are presently recorded among the LMICs. Ironically, although most sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) countries can be categorized as LMICs, yet communicable diseases (CDs) still constitute the highest disease burden in this region. However, based on global projections, SSA may soon lose this ‘advantage’ and may become the region with the highest burden of NCDs by the year 2030. If the present trajectory is left unshattered, the resulting heavy double burden of CDs and NCDs will likely crumble the already fragile economy of most SSA countries and tilt the region into an unprecedented recession. A critical review of the present disease-centered healthcare management approach and adoption of a more evidence-based health promotion-centered management approach may be vital in salvaging the situation. This article briefly reviewed the global epidemiologic transition, compared the disease- and health promotion-centered healthcare models, and made a case for a change in health management strategy in SSA. Keywords: Disease-centered approach, Epidemiological transition, Health promotion-centered approach, lifestyle modification, Non-communicable Diseases Risk factors, sub-Saharan Africa.

The Shadow Pandemic: Examining the Impact of COVID-19 on Zimbabwean Informal Sector in Chiredzi District

COVID-19 has disrupted the business sector globally, ushering developed and developing economies into an unprecedented recession beyond anything experienced in nearly a century. Governments across the globe have adopted a myriad of preventive measures. These remedial actions vary from one country to the other. Nonetheless, in Zimbabwe the government gave a blind eye on the informal sector as evidenced by the adopted preventive measures which neglected the plight of informal traders. To this end, this research interrogates the shadow pandemic in the Zimbabwean informal sector using Chiredzi District as an illustrative case study. Documentary review and key informed interviews were at the core of research methodology. The study found out that informal economy businesses are excluded from government grants, closure of businesses, failure to pay rentals, disruption of the supply chain, psychological impact and family dysfunctional are the quandaries causing a shadow pandemic. Inclusion of informal economy businesses in policies and government grants, government should negotiate with landlords, informal traders should be allowed to operate and inclusive social nets are the possible remedial actions that the government can adopted.

Covid-19 and Economics Forecasting on Advanced and Emerging Countries

Objective: To estimate the size and the dynamics of the coronavirus (covid-19) pandemic in Advanced, Emerging, and Developing Economies, and to determine its implications for economic growth. Methodology: A susceptible Infected Recovered (sir) model is implemented, we calculate the size of the pandemic through numerical integration and phase diagrams for covid-19 trajectory; finally, we use ensemble models (random forest) to forecast economic growth. Results: We confirm that there are differences in pandemic spread and size among countries; likewise, the trajectories show a long-term spiral cycle. Economic recovery is expected to be slow and gradual for most of the economies. Limitations: All countries differ in covid-19 test applications, which could lead to inaccurate total confirmed cases and an imprecise estimate of the pandemic’s spread and size. In addition, there is a lack of leading indicators in some countries, generating a higher mse of some machine learning models. Originality: To implement economic-epidemiological models to analyze the evolution and virus’ spreading throughout time. Conclusions: It is found the pandemic’s final size to be between 74-77%. Likewise, it is demonstrated that covid-19 is endemic, with a constant prevalence of 9 years on average. The spread of the pandemic has caused countries to self-induce in an unprecedented recession with a slow recovery.

Business Ethics in Difficult Times: Takeaways from the Current Corona and Economic Crises

The COVID-19 pandemic poses serious global challenges. Not only are they influencing political and social decisions, they are also affecting economic ones, both within individual companies and with all market participants. We are currently threatened by an unprecedented recession, which calls for active invention in the economy and companies themselves. This paper examines normative aspects of business and corporate ethics and shows how they can be used to better counteract the current crisis and associated challenges. I show that cooperative competition and open information-sharing with competitors can be mutually beneficial. I likewise suggest the importance of qualitative innovations that are recognized by society and all whom they directly or indirectly affect. If both aspects are combined – cooperation and the recognition of innovation – extensive innovation clusters can be initiated that can actively counter the current economic crisis. Keywords: Cooperative competition, qualitative innovation, coronavirus, recession, business ethics, philosophy of economics, innovation cluster, basic goods

Crises and Brazilian Theatre

Brazil is going through a political and economic crisis of major proportions – an unprecedented recession and the rise of an illegitimate government following the impeachment of the elected president. Theatre responds to this crisis with a timely production of reflection and, eventually, militancy. It also responds to another crisis: that of the pertinence of language and of modes of theatrical production in the context of a society in which relationships take place in a virtual environment, to the detriment of real social and political action. The objective of this text is to identify the general lines of this kind of production.

Social Support Actions as Forms of Building Community Resilience at the Onset of the Crisis in Urban Greece: The Case of Chania

In the context of the recent global financial crisis Greece has faced an unprecedented recession with devastating impacts on individuals' lives echoed in record unemployment and poverty rates. Greek society has collectively responded by providing social support to those in need through the mobilization of social movement organizations, local authorities, different associations, the Orthodox Church etc. The chapter presents the findings of a study applying the quantitative approach of event analysis and based on a community resilience framework explores social support activity including soup kitchens, free distribution of clothes and other basic products, free health care, educational services in a Greek urban society, i.e. Chania. The results unveil the escalating trend in social support actions at the onset of the crisis and their main attributes as important components in building community resilience. The paper focuses specifically on the support activity of social movement organizations as the most active organizing agency during the period under study. It is recommended that future studies in communities severely affected from economic crises could enhance our understanding in social support actions as forms of building community resilience.

Deprivation and access to work in Dublin City: The impact of transport disadvantage

Ireland's economy underwent a period of rapid expansion between 1995 and 2007, accompanied by a boom in construction. The subsequent decade saw a rapid decline in construction as Ireland went through an unprecedented recession. This paper examines how this boom and bust has influenced deprivation and accessibility in Dublin. The paper examines, through a logit model, links between transport disadvantage, deprivation and employment accessibility in the city. The paper concludes that links exist between deprivation and accessibility in the city, in particular in the newer peripheral suburbs, leaving these areas open to risk of transport poverty.

Healthcare public-private partnerships in Italy: Assessing risk sharing and governance issues with PESTLE and SWOT analysis

Healthcare infrastructural investments are a key strategic issue in countries such as Italy, whose aging population faces severe public budget constraints, exacerbated by the unprecedented recession. The choice between traditional procurement (TP) and Public Private Partnerships/Project Finance (PPP/PF) is by now a cornerstone of public strategies concerning complex infrastructural investments. PESTLE and SWOT strategic analysis provides a systematic and comprehensive reflection of the external and internal operational environment but has infrequently been applied to infrastructural procurement. Risk sharing between public and private actors and consequent corporate governance and ownership issues are still under-investigated in the literature, especially if associated with innovative PESTLE and SWOT instruments. Evidence shows that PESTLE and SWOT analysis improves procurement choices and public-private partnering, softening governance concerns. Since empirical considerations about Italy may be globally extended, even beyond the healthcare industry, the audience of this study may conveniently widen well beyond its apparently narrow focus.

Cold War American literature and the rise of youth culture: children of empire

Introduction-An Unprecedented Recession from Adult Life Chapter 1. Don't Step on my Blue Suede Shoes-Empire, Deterrence and Origins of Dissent in Cold War Chapter 2. Generational Politics, Fifties Freud and the Fragmentation of Oedipus Chapter 3. The Parent-Apparent: The Post-Freudians, 'De-Parentification,' and Cold War Family Paradigm Chapter 4. Generation on Trial: Arthur Miller's Theater of Judgment Chapter 5. Trauma, Mourning and Self-(Re)fashioning: J. D. Salinger's The Catcher in Rye and Reinvention of Youth in Cold War Chapter 6. Racing with Moon: Hiroshima, Nagasaki and All-American Girl in Styron's Lie Down in Darkness Chapter 7. The End of Adulthood: Nabokov's Lolita Chapter 8. Jack Kerouac: 'Oedipus Eddy and the Story of America Chapter 9. Death's Child: Lost Fathers, Bereaved Daughters, and Rise of Postwar Feminism-Re-reading Sylvia Plath Chapter 10. The Comforts of Home: Generational Dialectics in Flannery O'Connor's Fiction Conclusion: The Cold War, Vietnam, Sixties and After

PPP versus Traditional Healthcare Procurement in Italy: Assessing Value for Money with PESTLE and SWOT Analysis

Healthcare infrastructural investments are a key strategic issue in countries such as Italy, whose aging population faces severe public budget constraints, exacerbated by the unprecedented recession. The choice between traditional procurement (TP) and Public Private Partnerships/Project Finance (PPP/PF) is by now a cornerstone of public strategies concerning complex infrastructural investments. PESTLE and SWOT strategic analysis provides a systematic and comprehensive reflection of the external and internal operational environment but has infrequently been applied to infrastructural procurement. Risk sharing between public and private actors and consequent corporate governance and ownership issues are still under-investigated in the literature, especially if associated with innovative PESTLE and SWOT instruments. Evidence shows that PESTLE and SWOT analysis improves procurement choices and public-private partnering, softening governance concerns. Since empirical considerations about Italy may be globally extended, even beyond the healthcare industry, the audience of this study may conveniently widen well beyond its apparently narrow focus.

Fuzzy Expert System for the Competitiveness Evaluation of Shipbuilding Companies

The world's shipbuilding industry as well as shipping industry is going through some unprecedented recession period in recent years. Shipbuilding companies in China have suffered a lot and many are now focusing on improving their competitiveness to survive the recession. The evaluation of a company's competitiveness is difficult considering the high level of uncertainty involved. This paper is a preliminary attempt to evaluate the competitiveness of Chinese shipbuilding companies using Fuzzy Expert System. An example system is presented in this paper which has shown its adoptability. With a larger and better intelligent database system established in the future, more accurate and reliable results can be achieved, which could help the practitioners in the shipbuilding industry to better understand and predict their companies' competitiveness.

Polish Migration to Ireland: ‘Free Movers’ in the New European Mobility Space

Since EU enlargement in 2004, Ireland has emerged as a major destination for Polish migrants. What are the particular features of this East–West migration? Based on repeat interviews with Polish migrants as part of a Qualitative Panel Study, we show that this migration is characterised by new mobility patterns. As ‘free movers’, Polish migrants are more mobile across national borders and within national labour markets. This affords them new opportunities beyond the employment experience. The younger and more educated of these migrants, especially, are part of a new generation of mobile Europeans for whom the move abroad is not only work-related but also involves lifestyle choices as part of a broader aspiration for self-development. The new mobility strategies of migrants become visible even in an economic downturn wherein Ireland has been hit by an unprecedented recession.

The survival strategies of Singapore contractors in prolonged recession

PurposeContractors adopt various strategies to achieve their firms' objectives of continued existence and further development, and to guide the relationship between the firms and the business environment within which they operate. An economic recession drives firms to undertake unusual steps to survive within an environmental context. The purpose of this paper is to examine the survival strategies of Singapore contractors in the eight years of unprecedented recession in the industry from 1997 to 2005 are examined.Design/methodology/approachIn total, 34 interviews were conducted with senior executives of large and medium‐sized construction firms in Singapore to identify their survival strategies during the recession period.FindingsThree categories of strategies are identified: contracting‐related actions, cost‐control related actions, and financial‐related actions. The results show that most contractors opted to bid for more projects that are within their firms' resources and capabilities in contracting for jobs. To control cost, all contractors implemented stricter site management on material wastage, stricter financial management on firms' cash flow, stricter and procurement procedures. The majority of them froze salaries and stopped hiring. In order to remain solvent, most contractors set aside a sum of money from their reserves for unforeseen circumstances.Practical implicationsContractors should learn how to stay adequately lean in managing their business in order to be flexible and responsive to changes within the business environment. The findings highlight the importance of effective cost, risk, relationship and resource management.Originality/valueThe findings provide valuable lessons to construction firms in preparing for volatile market conditions during a recession.

The Making of the Turkish Financial Crisis

At the turn of the century the Turkish economy was in need of an urgent stabilization in order to halt a treacherous process of inflation, unsustainable public debt accumulation, and increasing financial fragility, resulting from irresponsible policies and lack of fiscal discipline that had been endemic since the early 1980s. The stabilization program launched with support from the IMF has, however, failed to deliver its promises, plunging the economy into an unprecedented recession, largely because of serious shortcomings in its design as well as in crisis intervention which appears to have drawn no useful lessons from recent crises in emerging markets.

How Japanese electronic component firms evolved turnaround strategy

AbstractJapan's recent, unprecedented recession hit electronic component firms particularly hard. Case studies of four distressed firms reveal the key actions that led to successful turnarounds. TDK changed its strategy from mere expansion to developing new technologies closely based on its core competencies. ROHM reorganized its sales system, abolished small orders, and stopped trying to adapt to every assembler's needs. Omron launched a corporate effort to create synergy between three main business domains. ALPS underwent a drastic restructuring and retrenchment, reducing components types and cutting its labor force while expanding overseas production. All four successful turnarounds involved abandoning strategies based on pleasing component assemblers in favor of strategies better reflecting the firms' own needs. © 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Evolution of Japanese Energy Policy

To limit oil imports, Japan has established goals for 1985 and 1990 in terms of energy conservation, production of nuclear power plants, importation of LNG and coal, and development of new energy sources. In addition, the government and private concerns are making efforts for strengthening the exploration and development of oil resources and for diversifying the sources of imported oil. Introduction Two decades before the oil crisis in 1973, Japan had enjoyed unprecedented rapid growth of its economy. The gross national product (GNP) had increased 10% per year in 20 years, resulting in a rapid growth of energy consumption. Total energy consumption in 1973 was equivalent to 7 MMB/D (407 × 106 m3/a) compared with 1 MMB/D (58 × 106 m3/a) in 1953. Oil consumption represented 87% of this increase. As a result, in 1973 Japan was consuming 5.5 MMB/D (319 × 106 m3/a) of oil, which represented 75% of primary energy consumption, and 99.8% of the oil was imported. In fact, Japan's rapid economic growth for two decades had relied on the plentiful and stable supplies of oil that had been achieved in the world, particularly in the Middle East.This crisis, first experienced as oil shortages and sharp price increases, had an especially profound impact on oil-dependent Japan. Trends in economic growth changed fundamentally after the oil shock and the unprecedented recession that followed. In the postcrisis period, there has been little expectation that the future economic growth rate will equal that of the pre-1973 period.As a result of observations over the past few years on the global development of oil and other energy sources, and through continued discussions concerning the future status of these sources, the great majority of Japanese have become aware that a stable energy supply will be the decisive factor for economic growth in the future. Guidelines of the Ministerial Task Force for Energy Policy The oil shock made the Japanese government and people aware of the importance of stable supplies of energy for future economic performance. The government set up the Natural Resources and Energy Agency (attached to the Ministry of International Trade and Industry) and the Ministerial Task Force for Energy Policy, headed by the prime minister.In 1975, upon request by the Natural Resources and Energy Agency, the Advisory Committee for Energy worked out a recommendation for a new energy policy, including interim projections of energy supply and demand. The Ministerial Task Force reviewed the report submitted by the committee and set up guidelines for an energy policy.The result of the study by the committee suggested that there is no simple and easy way to ensure a stable energy supply for a country like Japan, which lacks the indigenous energy resources and is dependent on large amounts of energy. JPT P. 1691＾