Observed effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the life satisfaction, psychological distress and loneliness of Australian carers and non-carers

Using six waves of longitudinal data, we investigate wellbeing, psychological distress and loneliness differences between informal carers and non-carers in the context of COVID-19-related policy changes in Australia. Wellbeing levels fluctuated along with the virus case numbers. Free childcare temporarily alleviated the disparity between carers and non-carers, but by its cessation, carers, in particular, reported lower wellbeing and higher psychological distress. Wage subsidies and income supports had opposing effects for carers’ and non-carers’ mental health but decreased the loneliness of both groups. Victorians, living in the state where the second wave of infections in Australia was concentrated, experienced worse outcomes than other Australians.

Why don’t employers hire long-term unemployed entitled to a wage subsidy? The employer’s perspective on subsidised employment

Despite a generous system with high wage subsidies for the long-term unemployed and newly arrived immigrants, many Swedish employers do not make use of this opportunity. This study seeks to increase knowledge of why some employers use the opportunity and others do not. Both register and survey data and combined register and survey data are used. One finding is that employers lack information about the subsidy programmes, although employers that had previously employed subsidised workers were much more likely to employ them in the future. Thus, a key policy question is how to present these subsidies to employers to reduce this barrier. The study also found that some employers hired people from these groups from altruistic motives. However, some employers responded that they would not employ a person entitled to a subsidy, regardless of the content of the subsidy scheme.

Flexibilizing the Retirement Transition: Why, How and for Whom? Conceptual Clarifications, Institutional Arrangements and Potential Consequences

In many countries, flexibilizing the retirement transition is seen as an innovative policy which may help to solve some of the problems ageing societies face. The paper aims at specifying what is or can be meant by flexibilizing the retirement transition. The proposed conceptual framework contributes to a better understanding of the potential individual and structural consequences of flexibilized retirement transitions. It spells out four dimensions based on which measures of flexibilization can be differentiated, compared and examined more closely: aggregate vs. individual flexibilization (the latter resulting in gradual retirement), the temporal form and reference of flexibilizing measures, accessibility and eligibility, and financial risks and costs resulting from flexible transitions to retirement. These dimensions of comparison are exemplified by referring to existing measures of retirement flexibilization, in particular wage subsidies and partial pensions. Based on the conceptual argument, some of the potential consequences of flexibilized retirement transitions are discussed critically and in particular with regard to questions of social inequality. As these reflections show, the framework may also help to unpack the policy logic behind flexibilizing retirement transitions, and the very different interests it may serve.

Employment and Labor Law

Antitrust law cannot directly address wage suppression that occurs as a result of search costs and job differentiation, which cause frictions in labor markets. The question arises whether other employment and labor regulations can be used to reduce the monopsony power of employers that arises from these sources, or to mitigate its ill effects. These regulations include minimum wage law, tax and wage subsidies, mandatory benefits, job protection, licensing, training, job standardization, labor law, governance reforms, and macroeconomic reform. While some of these regulations, if well-designed, can help mitigate the harms of labor monopsony, many of them are ill-suited to this task.

Footing the Bill

Chapter 8 briefly takes up two questions about funding the proposals advanced in Chapters 6 and 7: how to structure the funding of new and existing benefits—specifically, those that could but need not be funded through employer payrolls—and how to raise whatever public revenues are needed. The problem is this: Payroll-based funding tends to unnecessarily speed job losses and affords limited latitude for redistribution; but it has political advantages as seen with Social Security. Payroll-based benefits are seen by beneficiaries and voters as earned and owned, and they require little or no public appropriations. The chapter proposes hybrid funding mechanisms, including new uses for “wage subsidies,” that attempt to finesse this dilemma. And it suggests some more and less familiar ways of taxing the biggest winners in a more automated economy to support programs in support of those being left behind.

the General Equilibrium Incidence of the Earned Income Tax Credit

The Earned Income Tax Credit is a $67 billion tax expenditure that subsidizes 20% of all workers. Yet all prior analysis uses partial equilibrium assumptions on gross wages. I derive the general equilibrium incidence of wage subsidies and quantify the importance of EITC spillovers in three ways. I calculate the GE incidence of the 1993 and 2009 EITC expansions using new elasticity estimates. I contrast the incidence of counterfactual EITC and Welfare expansions. I quantify the effect of equalizing the EITC for workers with and without children. In all cases, I find spillovers are economically meaningful.

Sustainability of MSMEs in Indonesia

This chapter is aimed to discuss the condition of the MSMEs in Indonesia at the beginning of COVID-19 as well as the strategies that the government has undertaken to minimize the impact of COVID-19. The data for analysis is data from online survey results that carried out between 24 April-2 May 2020 with a total of 204 MSMEs participating. The results of the survey show that more than half (53%) of the MSMEs suffered from a decrease in income/production; even 43% stopped production at the beginning of the pandemic. Most of the MSMEs in various sectors admitted that they were only able to survive for less than three months, with the worst sectors being trade, corporate services, and construction. The government has implemented wage subsidy policies, loan interest subsidies, and tax abolition to save the MSMEs from the impact of COVID-19. For this matter, efforts to save MSMEs must continue, especially through expanding wage subsidies, increasing the realization of the low subsidy budget, and transforming to digital-based businesses.

Chile wage subsidies will not eliminate job losses

Headline CHILE: Wage subsidies will not eliminate job losses