Behavioral Sciences To Protect Human Capital Investments During And After The Covid 19 Pandemic

The novel coronavirus (SARS-Cov-2, which causes COVID-19) presents multi-dimensional challenges for countries as the effects of the virus, and the response efforts, intersect with other sectors and development priorities. Impacts have been felt across sectors and globally, and there have beenimmediate impacts on human capital attainment and investment.2 The COVID-19 (coronavirus) response, in both the immediate crisis period and the medium/long term, will demand changes in health and other behaviors at the individual, group, and society levels to help mitigate these impacts and risks. Behavioral science can provide insights into designing effective COVID-19 (coronavirus) responses, as well as how to sustain progress in other important areas when resources are focused primarily on urgent COVID-19 (coronavirus) response and attention is limited. At the heart of addressing the COVID-19 (coronavirus) health crisis, from immediate response, to recovery and action on its impacts, lies large demand on behavior change, whether at the individual, group or society level. While much of the immediate focus so far has been on social and behavior change communications to manage infection rates, there are other areas of human capital development and protection where insights and actions can benefit from behavioral science. This note is intended to introduce a behavioral lens to health and nutrition, education, and social protection efforts to reduce negative impacts on human capital accumulation (mainly health, nutrition and education), and to enhance preparedness, response, and adaptation to COVID-19 (coronavirus).

Human capital—the knowledge, skills, and health that people accumulate over their lives—is a central driver of sustainable growth, poverty reduction, and successful societies. More human capital is associated with higher earnings for people, higher income for countries, and stronger cohesion in societies. Much of the hard-won human capital gains in many economies over the past decade is at risk of being eroded by the COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic. Urgent action is needed to protect these advances, particularly among the poor and vulnerable. Designing the needed interventions, targeting them to achieve the highest effectiveness, and navigating difficult trade-offs make investing in better measurement of human capital now more important than ever. The Human Capital Index (HCI)—launched in 2018 as part of the Human Capital Project—is an international metric that benchmarks the key components of human capital across economies. The HCI is a global effort to accelerate progress toward a world where all children can achieve their full potential. Measuring the human capital that children born today can expect to attain by their 18th birthdays, the HCI highlights how current health and education outcomes shape the productivity of the next generation of workers and underscores the importance of government and societal investments in human capital. The Human Capital Index 2020 Update: Human Capital in the Time of COVID-19 presents the first update of the HCI, using health and education data available as of March 2020. It documents new evidence on trends, examples of successes, and analytical work on the utilization of human capital. The new data—collected before the global onset of COVID-19—can act as a baseline to track its effects on health and education outcomes. The report highlights how better measurement is essential for policy makers to design effective interventions and target support. In the immediate term, investments in better measurement and data use will guide pandemic containment strategies and support for those who are most affected. In the medium term, better curation and use of administrative, survey, and identification data can guide policy choices in an environment of limited fiscal space and competing priorities. In the longer term, the hope is that economies will be able to do more than simply recover lost ground. Ambitious, evidence-driven policy measures in health, education, and social protection can pave the way for today’s children to surpass the human capital achievements and quality of life of the generations that preceded them.

Using nationally representative data from the 2021 National Financial Capability Study (NFCS), this study investigates the association between human capital, as proxied through education and financial knowledge, and stimulus payment usage for debt repayment, savings, and investments during the COVID-19 pandemic. The results from a sample of 23,344 observations suggest that human capital is associated positively with using stimulus payments to add to savings or invest in the stock market. This study also suggests that differences in human capital may have adversely affected wealth inequality during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Essay from the year 2020 in the subject Business economics - Business Ethics, Corporate Ethics, grade: 1,3, University of applied sciences, Düsseldorf, course: Modul Business Ethics, language: English, abstract: The Scientific Essay analyses the question whether it is possible for companies to agree on ethical and economic goals and to establish a permanent ethical corporate strategy as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. For that key question, the Scientific Essay using three concepts of the module Business Ethics analyse and discuss the challenges and opportunities arising from the Covid-19 crisis in general and for Volkswagen. The concepts, which are initially defined and form the basis of the Scientific Essay, are: License to Operate, Triple Bottom Line, Corporate Responsibility. In the main part, the challenges and opportunities of the pandemic are presented based on the concepts. With reference to the title, it is particularly emphasized to what extent the Covid-19 crisis represents a turning point. Based on this chapter, the Volkswagen company is analysed. The contrast between the emission scandal and the new ethical orientation of VW is shown during the pandemic. Finally, the conclusion is drawn looking back at the entire Essay.

The COVID-19 pandemic has dealt a severe blow to human capital. This report presents new evidence and analysis to provide a comprehensive diagnostic of the effects of the pandemic on human capital outcomes and identify promising policy responses for governments faced with the task of rebuilding human capital in the wake of the pandemic.

This book examines human capital development in the Middle East. It focuses on the investment in human capabilities, namely education and health, the two most critical components of growth and development. The book assesses the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the healthcare sector, with particular attention paid to effectiveness of public health policies and services, health expenditure, mortality rates, and psychological effects of the pandemic on the wider society. It also evaluates the pandemic effects on the education sector, more specifically medical education, physical education, emotional effects on students and teachers, method of communications, learning and teaching, and the extent to which digital readiness has minimized these effects. The book reveals the severity of the pandemic on human capabilities in terms of loss of lives, illness, vaccinations, knowledge acquisitions, skills development, and productivity, while providing new insights for governments to deal with similar crises in the future. It uses a variety of research methods and quantitative and qualitative techniques, country case studies, and primary data collected through survey questionnaires, interviews, and official reports to analyse the impact of the pandemic on health and education. The analyses are supported by statistical data and illustrated by tables and figures. Readers, students, researchers, industry practitioners and policy makers will benefit from the new insights offered by a diverse group of 40 professors, researchers, and industry experts from across the Middle East and beyond.