A Tale of Two Pandemics: Economic Inequality and Support for Containment Measures in Peru
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ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Carreras M
PROVIDER: S-EPMC8361233 | biostudies-literature |
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
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Project description:Past research has documented myriad pernicious psychological effects of high economic inequality, prompting interest into how people perceive, evaluate, and react to inequality. Here we propose, refine, and validate the Support for Economic Inequality Scale (SEIS)-a novel measure of attitudes towards economic inequality. In Study 1, we distill eighteen items down to five, providing evidence for unidimensionality and reliability. In Study 2, we replicate the scale's unidimensionality and reliability and demonstrate its validity. In Study 3, we evaluate a United States version of the SEIS. Finally, in Studies 4-5, we demonstrate the SEIS's convergent and predictive validity, as well as evidence for the SEIS being distinct from other conceptually similar measures. The SEIS is a valid and reliable instrument for assessing perceptions of and reactions to economic inequality and provides a useful tool for researchers investigating the psychological underpinnings of economic inequality.
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Project description:The novel coronavirus is part of a series of infectious disease outbreaks that include: Ebola, Avian influenza, Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus, and Influenza A. This paper addresses the question of how do these epidemics and pandemics affect income inequality in countries around the world during the first two decades of this century. To achieve its objective, the paper develops a model that indicates a positive association between these health crises and income inequality. To empirically test our theoretical predictions, the paper explores the effect on the Gini coefficient of a dummy variable that indicates the occurrence of an epidemic or a pandemic in a country in a given year and the number of deaths per 100,000. To properly address potential endogeneity, we implement a Three-Stage-Least Squares technique. The estimation shows that the number of deaths per 100,000 population variable has a statistically significant positive effect on the Gini coefficient, especially when we incorporate COVID-19 data. This suggests that not only the occurrence, but also the health consequences of COVID-19 have a significant and economically important effect on income inequality.BackgroundThe purpose of the study is to examine the effect of epidemics and pandemics on income inequality. This has important implications as the outcome of this study can guide policymakers into implementing policies that can mitigate the economic consequences of these health crises.MethodsThe study is a cross country analysis using fixed effects estimation. To address potential endogeneity and determine causality, the paper uses the Three-Stage-Least-Squares estimation.ResultsThe paper finds that the number of epidemic deaths per 100,000 population variable has a statistically significant positive effect on the Gini coefficient, especially when we incorporate COVID-19 data.ConclusionsThe paper finds that it is not only the occurrence of an epidemic, captured by the epidemics dummy variable, but also the health consequences, captured by the number of deaths per 100,000 population, that have a significant effect on income inequality. This is especially the case when we incorporate COVID-19 in our analysis.Trial registrationNot Applicable.
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Project description:The emergence of COVID-19, caused by novel Coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, became a pandemic in just 10 weeks. Without effective medications or vaccines available, authorities turned toward mitigation measures such as use of face masks, school's closings, shelter-in-place, telework and social distancing. People found refuge on the internet and social media apps; however, there was a proliferation of instant messaging containing hoaxed, deliberate misleading information: fake news messaging (FNM). The aim of this study was to assess FNM through content analysis and to discriminate them in a proposed taxonomy structure. A sample of convenience of messages, memes, tweets or cartoons in several languages was selected from the most popular social media outlets, i.e. Facebook, WhatsApp, Twitter etc. More than 300 FNM were identified. Descriptive statistics were used for highlighting potential relationships between variables. Content analysis determined that FNM could be divided into Health- and non-health-related types. There are several sub-types considering, but not limited to, religious beliefs, politics, economy, nutrition, behaviors, prevention of the infection, the origin of the disease and conspiracy theories. The parallel FNM pandemic affected the response from an already debilitated public health system through the confusion created in the community and the erosion in the credibility of genuine media. Public health practitioners had to face people's unpredictable behaviors, panic, tensions with the communities and, in some cases, a hostile climate toward frontline workers. Public health practitioners must adjust ongoing and future health promotion and education interventions including plans to neutralize fake news messages.
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Project description:This paper examines the effects of pandemics on income inequality, specifically those pandemics that claimed more than 100,000 lives. Given that pandemics are events that rarely occur, we have use data spanning over the last 100 years (1915-2017) and relating to four pandemics. The study includes four countries that had income inequality data covering that period. Using panel data methods-fixed effects and augmented mean group estimators-we found a significant effect of these pandemics on declining income inequality. The study argues that based on the characteristics of the COVID-19 pandemic, namely that fatalities are highly concentrated in older age groups, we can neither expect a labor scarcity nor a sharp decline in productivity; however, we could expect a reduction in consumption, the possibility of savings, high unemployment rates, and high public debt ratios. The ultimate effects of COVID-19 on inequality remain unclear so far, as some of its inherent characteristics push for an increase in inequality. In contrast, others push toward a narrowing of the income gap.Supplementary informationThe online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s43546-021-00059-4.
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Project description:The COVID-19 pandemic exposes and amplifies pre-existing inequalities even in places with relatively well-controlled outbreaks such as Hong Kong. This study aimed to explore whether the socioeconomically disadvantaged fare worse via various types of worry in terms of their mental health and well-being. Between September and October 2020, 1067 adults in Hong Kong were recruited via a cross-sectional population-wide telephone survey. The inter-relationship between deprivation, types of worry, mental health disorders, and subjective well-being was assessed using structural equation modelling. Results showed significant total effects of deprivation on worries about being infected (p = 0.002), economic activities and livelihood (p < 0.001), and personal savings (p < 0.001), as well as mental health disorders (p < 0.001) and subjective well-being (p < 0.001). Specifically, worry about economic activities and livelihood partly mediated the total effect of deprivation on mental health disorders (p = 0.004), whereas worry about personal savings and worry about economic activities and livelihood partially mediated the total effect of deprivation on subjective well-being (p = 0.007 and 0.002, respectively). Socioeconomic inequality, particularly in mental health and well-being, could be exacerbated via people's economic concerns during the pandemic, which was largely induced by the COVID-19 containment measures rather than the pandemic per se given the relatively low COVID-19 incidence in Hong Kong.
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Project description:A key challenge in evolutionary biology is the accurate quantification of selective pressure on proteins and other biological macromolecules at single-site resolution. The evolutionary importance of a protein site under purifying selection is typically measured by the degree of conservation of the protein site itself. A possible alternative measure is the strength of the site-induced conservation gradient in the rest of the protein structure. However, the quantitative relationship between these two measures remains unknown. Here, we show that despite major differences, there is a strong linear relationship between the two measures such that more conserved protein sites also induce stronger conservation gradient in the rest of the protein. This linear relationship is universal as it holds for different types of proteins and functional sites in proteins. Our results show that the strong selective pressure acting on the functional site in general percolates through the rest of the protein via residue-residue contacts. Surprisingly however, catalytic sites in enzymes are the principal exception to this rule. Catalytic sites induce significantly stronger conservation gradients in the rest of the protein than expected from the degree of conservation of the site alone. The unique requirement for the active site to selectively stabilize the transition state of the catalyzed chemical reaction imposes additional selective constraints on the rest of the enzyme.
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Project description:The paper studies the effects of mitigation measures on environment during a pandemic. Various mitigation measures such as business closures have been imposed to reduce health risks. Such measures also limit economic activities and reduce emissions. Measures disproportionately affect the contact-intensive sectors such as the leisure and hospitality industry, as their economic activities involve more person-to-person interactions. Thus, the extent of emission reduction depends on the severity of a measure and the size of the contact-intensive sectors. Using data on business and restaurant closures, school closures and bans on gatherings across 50 U.S. states during the Covid-19 pandemic, an empirical analysis shows that emissions decrease more in states with a more stringent measure and a larger share of the contact-intensive sectors.Supplementary informationThe online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10640-020-00535-9.
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Project description:Abstract COVID‐19 caused a major economic downturn, the like of which had not been seen since the Great Recession although the underlying causes of the two crises were very different; systemic risk versus a virus. Here we look at how flexible work practices, allied with adequate supports and lifelong learning opportunities, aided economic recovery following the earlier crisis in order to see if there are any lessons to be learnt for post‐pandemic recovery. Overall, the results indicated that flexicurity provided a modest growth dividend during the Great Recession, typically no more than one percentage point. Of the individual components, the short‐run results indicated that security along with life‐long learning and part‐time work proved the most beneficial, although flexible work practices also boosted growth, albeit to a lesser extent. For flexible labour markets, the long‐run results indicated that the growth gains were highest in trusting economies with, or without, social partner engagement.
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Project description:Human activity is causing high rates of biodiversity loss. Yet, surprisingly little is known about the extent to which socioeconomic factors exacerbate or ameliorate our impacts on biological diversity. One such factor, economic inequality, has been shown to affect public health, and has been linked to environmental problems in general. We tested how strongly economic inequality is related to biodiversity loss in particular. We found that among countries, and among US states, the number of species that are threatened or declining increases substantially with the Gini ratio of income inequality. At both levels of analysis, the connection between income inequality and biodiversity loss persists after controlling for biophysical conditions, human population size, and per capita GDP or income. Future research should explore potential mechanisms behind this equality-biodiversity relationship. Our results suggest that economic reforms would go hand in hand with, if not serving as a prerequisite for, effective conservation.
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Project description:Rising income inequality is a global trend. Increased income inequality has been associated with higher rates of crime, greater consumer debt, and poorer health outcomes. The mechanisms linking inequality to poor outcomes among individuals are poorly understood. This research tested a behavioral account linking inequality to individual decision making. In three experiments (n = 811), we found that higher inequality in the outcomes of an economic game led participants to take greater risks to try to achieve higher outcomes. This effect of unequal distributions on risk taking was driven by upward social comparisons. Next, we estimated economic risk taking in daily life using large-scale data from internet searches. Risk taking was higher in states with greater income inequality, an effect driven by inequality at the upper end of the income distribution. Results suggest that inequality may promote poor outcomes, in part, by increasing risky behavior.
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