Socioeconomic and Psychosocial Adversities Experienced by Creative Freelancers in the UK During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Qualitative Study

There are concerns that the socioeconomic consequences of COVID-19, including unemployment and financial insecurity, are having adverse effects on the mental wellbeing of the population. One group particularly vulnerable to socioeconomic adversity during this period are those employed freelance within the cultural industry. Many workers in the sector were already subject to income instability, erratic work schedules and a lack of economic security before the pandemic, and it is possible that COVID-19 may exacerbate pre-existing economic precarity. Through interviews with 20 freelancers working within the performing arts, visual arts, and film and television industries, this article explores the impact of the pandemic on their working lives. Findings suggest the pandemic is affecting the psychological wellbeing of freelancers through employment loss, financial instability and work dissonance, and illustrates the need for urgent economic and psychosocial support for those employed within the cultural sector.

The intersectional precarity of platform cycle delivery workers

In less than a decade, with the emergence of food delivery platforms, cycling has gained increased visibility on city roads across the world. For the first time since the advent of the automobile age, the bicycle is re-emerging globally as a dependable tool to earn a living. Food delivery start-ups such as Deliveroo, Uber Eats or Glovo enroll an increasingly precarious population as self-employed contractors to whom they grant little social protection. Having access to a bicycle and knowing how to use it is a very low entrance requirement for these jobs. Cycle food couriers hold a precarious entitlement to the road space, which makes them constantly vulnerable to bodily harm, and is compounded by a broader ontological precarity. The insecurity resulting from being engaged in an unregulated gig economy where job and income instability is amplified by issues of gender, ethnicity and migration status, further adds to road unsafety. In this chapter, we draw on case studies from the UK, Spain and South America to account for how the precarity of cycling is amplified by the political landscape of neoliberalism of the last three decades, which promotes flexible work, and the legislative setting failing to account for cycle couriers as employees.

Impact of COVID-19 on Child Maltreatment: Income Instability and Parenting Issues

Introduction: Children are widely recognized as a vulnerable population during disasters and emergencies. The COVID-19 pandemic, like a natural disaster, brought uncertainties and instability to the economic development of the society and social distancing, which might lead to child maltreatment. This study aims to investigate whether job loss, income reduction and parenting affect child maltreatment. Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional online survey of 600 randomly sampled parents aged 18 years or older who had and lived with a child under 10 years old in Hong Kong between 29 May to 16 June 2020. Participants were recruited from a random list of mobile phone numbers of a panel of parents. Of 779 recruited target parents, 600 parents completed the survey successfully via a web-based system after obtaining their online consent for participating in the survey. Results: Income reduction was found significantly associated with severe (OR = 3.29, 95% CI = 1.06, 10.25) and very severe physical assaults (OR = 7.69, 95% CI = 2.24, 26.41) towards children. Job loss or large income reduction were also significantly associated with severe (OR= 3.68, 95% CI = 1.33, 10.19) and very severe physical assaults (OR = 4.05, 95% CI = 1.17, 14.08) towards children. However, income reduction (OR = 0.29, 95% CI = 0.15, 0.53) and job loss (OR = 0.47, 95% CI = 0.28, 0.76) were significantly associated with less psychological aggression. Exposure to intimate partner violence between parents is a very strong and significant factor associated with all types of child maltreatment. Having higher levels of difficulty in discussing COVID-19 with children was significantly associated with more corporal punishment (OR = 1.19, 95% CI = 1.05, 1.34), whereas having higher level of confidence in managing preventive COVID-19 behaviors with children was negatively associated with corporal punishment (OR = 0.87, 95% CI = 0.76, 0.99) and very severe physical assaults (OR = 0.74, 95% CI = 0.58, 0.93). Conclusions: Income instability such as income reduction and job loss amplified the risk of severe and very severe child physical assaults but protected children from psychological aggression. Also, confidence in teaching COVID-19 and managing preventive COVID-19 behaviors with children was significantly negatively associated with corporal punishment during pandemic.

Diversification of the economy in the context of globalization (case of Azerbaijan)

Research background: Azerbaijan, as a country with rich mineral resources, faces macroeconomic difficulties due to income instability. In 2011-2013, during the period of high world oil prices, Azerbaijan began to diversify the economy and develop the non-oil sector at the expense of oil and gas export revenues. The need to diversify the economy and export has become especially important in the conditions of increased global competition and the integration of the national economy into the world economy. Purpose of the article: The aim of the issue is assessment and study the characteristics of diversification of the economy of Azerbaijan, analyze the dependence of the country’s economic development on the degree of diversification of its economy and exports, assess the level of economic diversification of the country. Methods: To measure the level of diversification, we used indicators such as Herfindahl-Hirschmann export diversification index, and industry concentration in GDP. The originality and value of the research lies in revelation a number of indicators specific to the Azerbaijani economy that affect economic growth based on correlation-regression analysis and other econometric methods. According to econometric characteristics, the resulting model is adequate and confirms the empirical findings Findings & Value added: The results of the study showed that deeper diversification of the economy is required. To overcome oil dependence and conduct effective economic diversification, it is necessary to develop processing industries, expand the accessibility of small and medium enterprises to financial resources, and stimulate foreign investment in the non-oil sector.

Socioeconomic adversities experienced by creative freelancers in the UK during the COVID-19 pandemic: A qualitative study.

There are concerns that the socioeconomic consequences of COVID-19, including unemployment and financial insecurity, are having adverse effects on the mental wellbeing of the population. One group particularly vulnerable to socioeconomic adversity during this period are those employed freelance within the creative and cultural industries. Many workers in the sector were already subject to income instability, erratic work schedules and a lack of economic security before the pandemic, and it is possible that COVID-19 may exacerbate pre-existing economic precarity. Through interviews with 20 freelancers working within the performing arts, visual arts, and film and television industries, this article explores the impact of the pandemic on their working lives. Findings suggest the pandemic is affecting the psychological wellbeing of freelancers through employment loss, financial instability and work dissonance, and illustrates the need for urgent economic and psychosocial support for those employed within this sector.

ANALISIS LIQUIDITY CREATION PADA PERBANKAN DI INDONESIA TAHUN 2007-2013 (STUDI KASUS PADA 10 BANK BESAR DI INDONESIA TAHUN 2013)

Problems related to banking in Indonesia today is the problem of liquidity. It is shownfrom a commercial bank credit grew 23.03% but not matched by growth in depositswhich only reached 16.56% in 2012 (Report of Banking Supervision, 2012). Therefore,this study aims to determine the liquidity creation in Indonesia as well as to analyze theinfluence of bank capital, credit risk and income instability towards liquidity creation.The samples includes 10 major banks in Indonesia with total assets of more thanRp120billion in 2013. The reason for choosing this sample because of the 10 largestbanks reflects the state of the banks in Indonesia which accounted for 65.2% of totalassets, 65.6% of total loans, and 66% of total deposits or deposits in the banking industry(PEFINDO, 2014). The results of this research note that the bank's capital and earningsvolatility is significant negative effect on liquidity creation. While the credit risk of anegative but insignificant effect on liquidity creation. In the determination coefficient testshowed that 43.6% dependent variable is the liquidity creation can be explained by theindependent variable is the capital of banks, credit risk and earnings volatility. While56.4% is explained by other variables outside the model of this study.Keywords: liquidity creation, capital of banks, credit risk, third-party funds, banks inIndonesia.