Pandemic Economy

Covid-19 effects and consequences in the first year

By Charis Vlados & Bachar Fakhry

Democritus University of Thrace, Greece.
University of Lahor, Pakistan.

Synopsis

A repositioning of the theoretical instruments of development and growth in the context of economics and political economy that we have at our disposal to date seems necessary, especially after the structural transformation caused by the COVID-19 socio-economic and pandemic crisis. Specifically, the overcoming of the COVID-19 era of crisis seems to depend on how we will manage to re-perceive the theory of economic development and apply its proposals in new economic policies, in global terms. In this context, this article examines whether the conceptual and “therapeutic” foundations of development economics have today the necessary potential to cope with structural changes caused by the ongoing global socio-economic crisis. We assess the current debate in the literature of “economic development versus economic growth” and conclude that a new, comprehensive and evolutionary, orientation to understanding economic development seems necessary to respond to new global challenges for the post-COVID-19 era. We propose a multidisciplinary and evolutionary conceptual direction that suggests the multi-angle understanding of diverse historical configurations. We argue that all socio-economic mutations accelerated by the current pandemic crisis have systemic and evolutionary content and effects and cannot be reliably perceived as mere coincidences of “quantities” and growth “performances.” In this way, we can only disagree with any static and linear approach to the current crisis that directly or indirectly leads to reproducing the rigid enclosure of the analysis in partial specializations of economics. On the contrary, we counter-propose a theoretical response of evolutionary type to assess the contemporary theory of economic development and the political economy in the post-COVID-19 era as an interdisciplinary crossroads for all socio-economic sciences.

The Covid-19 pandemic raised a few issues concerning how market participants react to a global pandemic. The pandemic was a black swan event on some levels; there had been few pandemics that have had such a global impact: the Spanish Flu of the late 1910s and 1957 influenza. Moreover, global interconnection means that the Covid-19 pandemic was able to spread across the globe quickly, thus indicating that extreme measures were needed to bring it under control. The policies taken by governments around the world had a significant adverse impact on the economy. It is with these factors in mind that we research the psychology of the market participants during the pandemic. Conversely, we introduce a new model of behaviour during uncertainty, which explains how market participants react during crises such as the Covid-19 pandemic. The model analyses the psychological issues, both emotional and cognitive, influencing the pandemic. We found that like any other crises, market participant reacted to government actions and announcements and the impact on the economy. Therefore, leading to the old issue of miscommunication and insufficient actions.

The New Zealand economy is in a parlous state and not simply because of the economic fall-out associated with the pandemic.  For decades now, New Zealand has been falling further and further behind its OECD partners, with institutional inefficiencies, poor policy making and the almost willful refusal of successive governments to admit to (let alone confront) mounting economic problems, all combining to place us on the edge of a deep, and lasting, economic downturn. Across a broad plethora of areas and key economic indicators, New Zealand lags behind almost every other advanced country against which it has traditionally measured itself.  These areas include the three pillars of social wellbeing (education, health, and social welfare), housing, tax, productivity and debt. In every case, we are either falling behind outcomes achieved in other countries (education, health, productivity), entrenching inequality through our failure to cater for the needs of our most vulnerable (housing, health, education, social welfare, tax), or failing to prepare adequately for looming economic and social costs – including those incurred by a rapidly aging population. If ignored, these problems will precipitate a crisis that may make the burden of recovering from Covid-19 pale by comparison (superannuation, health, debt). In its much anticipated post-Covid budget, the Labour Government needs to not only provide a clear blueprint for helping those who have been adversely affected by the pandemic and New Zealand’s subsequent lockdown, but also signal its intention to tackle the systemic weaknesses which have placed our economy at such risk, and which threaten to consign our future generations to unwelcome, and unnecessary, economic and social hardship.

In economics, the problematics of development and underdevelopment is a field of conceptual controversies and constant “re-comprehension,” already since classical economists’ fundamental explorations. Nowadays, especially within the particularly pressing conditions caused by the global pandemic of COVID-19, it seems that this field of research and scientific knowledge must be profoundly re-fertilized in analytical and explanatory terms. The current crisis seems to function as a catalyst for various structural changes globally, leading to a necessary theoretical reorientation of the related thematics towards exploring the inner evolutionary “mechanisms” that will drive socio-economic development (and underdevelopment) in the future. This article aims to study the conceptual evolution of the notions of development and underdevelopment in the light of modern evolutionary economics, which we think could offer a foundational repositioning at the interpretative level in response to the new emerging conditions. More specifically, this article tries to respond to what development and underdevelopment mean over time, where analytical readjustments the evolutionary economics lead to nowadays, and whether it is possible to counter-propose a multilevel approach that enriches the theoretical background for an interdisciplinary and unifying understanding of the specific problematics at the dawn of the new global reality that appears in the post-COVID-19 era. At first, we look at essential development and underdevelopment concepts by critically exploring corresponding basic definitions throughout time. Next, we study the essential and associated elements of evolutionary economics, in the light of the problematics of development and underdevelopment of our days, intending to reach a synthesizing theoretical perspective. We counter-propose the “development web” approach and analysis as a useful repositioned perspective on addressing the developmental/underdevelopmental problem since the compartmentalization of social sciences between the “micro, meso and macro” approaches seems progressively inadequate and sterile.

The COVID-19 pandemic gave minimal reaction time to governments around the world. While causing millions of deaths, it was also detrimental to the global economy. This paper is an attempt to understand what we can learn from our experience with the virus, with a focus on the United States. I discuss good and bad U.S. policies and the overall performance of institutions involved in pandemic response. The approach is economical because it connects what happened with some key economic principles. I talk about how markets helped us generate most of the knowledge we have on the virus, and I explain how existing regulations slowed down the production and distribution of essential items in the fight against Covid. Given the scarce nature of public attention, I also discuss the lack of consistent public messaging for the pandemic in the United States.

Contents

Preface

Chapter 1
The growth and development analytical controversies in economic science: A reassessment for the post-Covid-19 era
Charis VLADOS
Introduction
What does economic science mean nowadays?
Economics of development and economics of growth
Towards a multidisciplinary socio-economic and evolutionary understanding of crisis and development in the post-COVID-19 era
Acknowledgment
References

Chapter 2
The Covid-19 pandemic uncertainty behavioural factor model
Bachar FAKHRY
Introduction
A brief review of the theories influencing the uncertainty behavioural factor model
A review of Covid-19
A Review of the economic factors influencing the UK’s financial market during the Covid-19 pandemic
A review of the Covid-19 impact on the equity market
Conclusion
References

Chapter 3
The march towards poverty: Why the labour government has much more to deal with than the economic consequences of Covid-19 in its upcoming budget
Roger DOUGLAS, Robert MacCULLOCH, & Hugh McCAFFREY
Introduction
Where we stand
The emperor has no clothes
Conclusion

Chapter 4
Development and underdevelopment from the perspective of evolutionary socioeconomics in the post-COVID-19 era
Charis VLADOS
Introduction
What do development and underdevelopment mean?
Evolutionary economics and today’s theorization of development and underdevelopment
Concluding remarks: The integration of “micro, meso, and macro” social and economic analysis in the evolutionary understanding of development in the post-COVID-19 era
Acknowledgment
References

Chapter 5
What can the U.S. learn from its Covid-19 response?
Patrice Jude PIERRE
Introduction
Detection
Prevention
Production and distribution (domestic and international)
Research and publicity
Costs and conclusions
References

About the Editor

Dr. Charis Vlados holds a Ph.D. degreewith a “Very Honorable Distinction” for his thesis on the types/forms of evolutionary integration of the enterprises operating in Greece into globalization that took place within the framework of the Research and Studies Center on Multinational Enterprises (C.E.R.E.M) of the “Paris X-Nanterre” University. The author’s primary focus is on the fields of corporate strategy, competitiveness, entrepreneurship, economic policy, and globalization, while he has established and developed the “Stra.Tech.Man approach” in the field of business dynamics. Charis Vlados has been workingwith various research institutes and as a business consultant, both in Greece and abroad, for approximately twenty years. He is now a lecturer (academic tenure) with the Department of Economics of the Democritus University of Thrace, while has also taught in the past at the Universities of the Aegean and Peloponnese, and at various Public and Private Centres of Studies. Charis Vlados has authored until now seven scientific textbooks and monographs (in Greek) and more than 50 scientific publications.

Professor Bachar Fakhry was born with a disability effecting his speech and hand movement. Nevertheless, he is currentlyan Assistant Professor of Research at the University of Lahore, School of Accountancy & Finance. He received his PhD in Economics from the University of Bedfordshire in 2015.His research is mainly in the areas of financial economics and econometrics with a special focussed on bounded rationality; conversely, he has authored and co-authored several papers on bounded rationality in the financial market. He, also, has two master degrees in Distributed Information Systems (1996) and Financial Management (2005), both from the University of East London. Previously, he has worked for IBM as a software engineer and Goldman Sachs as a junior economist.

ISBN

978-625-7501-22-4

Date of Publication

December 1, 2021

File Size: 4092 KB
Length: xiv + 217 pages

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