Who Bears the Burden of a Pandemic? COVID-19 and the Transfer of Risk to Digital Platform Workers

The COVID-19 outbreak has forced businesses to shift to an unprecedented “work from home” company environment. While this provides advantages for employees and businesses, it also leads to a multitude of shortcomings, most prevalent of which is the emergence of additional security risks. Previous to the outbreak, company computer networks were mainly confined within its facilities. The pandemic has now caused this network to “spread thin,” as the majority of employees work remotely. This has opened up a variety of new vulnerabilities, as workers’ cyber protection is not the same at home as it is in office. Although the effects of the virus are now subsiding, working remotely has embedded itself as the new normal. Thus, it is imperative for company management to take the necessary steps to ensure business continuity and be prepared to deal with an increased number of cyber threats. In our research, we provide a detailed classification for a group of tools which will facilitate risk mitigation and prevention. We also provide a selection of automated tools such as vulnerability scanners, monitoring and logging tools, and antivirus software. We outline each tool using tables, to show useful information such as advantages, disadvantages, scalability, cost, and other characteristics. Additionally, we implement decision trees for each category of tools, in an attempt to assist in navigating the large amount of information presented in this paper. Our objective is to provide a multifaceted taxonomy and analysis of mitigation tools, which will support companies in their endeavor to protect their computer networks. Our contribution can also help companies to have some type of cyber threat intelligence so as to put themselves one step ahead of cyber criminals.

In-Touch is an adaptive learning technology, which extends the learning experience beyond the classroom hours and environment for unconventional learners. It serves as a safe online space for students to receive customized help from their teachers. It also mediates and promotes conversation between parents and teachers. In-Touch integrates three elements crucial to promoting success of unconventional learners: on demand help, student-centered approach, and confidence-building. For the purpose of the study, unconventional learners were defined as someone who does not learn in the methods that are currently offered in traditional classrooms. The design of In-Touch is based on a pilot study that considered the needs of parents and teachers who are raising and teaching unconventional learners

Despite the seemingly low switching and search costs of on-demand labor markets like Amazon Mechanical Turk, we find substantial monopsony power, as measured by the elasticity of labor supply facing the requester (employer). We isolate plausibly exogenous variation in rewards using a double machine learning estimator applied to a large dataset of scraped MTurk tasks. We also reanalyze data from five MTurk experiments that randomized payments to obtain corresponding experimental estimates. Both approaches yield uniformly low labor supply elasticities, around 0.1, with little heterogeneity. Our results suggest monopsony might also be present even in putatively “thick” labor markets. (JEL C44, J22, J23, J42)

Abstract Purpose: This research aimed to analyze the impact of Work from Home, Digital Platform, and Online Meeting Applications on Work Productivity. This research aimed to observe the correlation of the three factors of exogenous variables towards work productivity. Research Methodology: Sampling in this study used Random Sampling Techniques by spreading questionnaires to PT Telkom Access - West Jakarta towards 100 people. It shows that the population of PT Telkom Access - West Jakarta are 984 people. The methodology used to collect data was with the distribution of questionnaires. The statistical test tool utilized was SmartPLS 3.0. Results: Based on the results, the study shows that Work from Home positively affects work productivity, the Digital Platform positively affects work productivity, and the Online Meeting Applications positively affects Work Productivity.

AbstractFirm operators continually manage multiple sources of risk. In an application to cattle feedlot operations, our objective is to determine if producers view output price and animal health risks separately or jointly. We conduct a survey with a choice experiment placing operators in forward looking, decision-making scenarios, and capture information on past risk management approaches. Evidence regarding a relationship between animal health and output price risk mitigation is mixed and depends on the decision being made. Combined, these results provide new insight into how managers approach multiple risks when facing resource constraints.

Using the so-called “sharing economy” or on-demand economy as a jumping off point, this chapter considers the logic and commodification of the gift. Early users of Airbnb, a digital platform that allows homeowners to offer their residences for short-term rentals, would often leave gifts for their hosts. These gifts spotlight the home as both an intimately personal space and as a zone of commerce, both emotionally and economically dense with relationships. Airbnb heightens the contradictions of these relationships. Leaving gifts after an Airbnb stay imparts a sense of connection and belonging, despite the short-term nature of the relationship and its mediation by money. Are such gifts payments? Are they expressions of a desire to connect? The author concludes that the gift maintains its relevance despite the asset monetization of everyday life represented by the sharing economy.

Introduction:Disasters cause severe disruption to socio-economic, infrastructural, and environmental aspects of community and nation. While the impact of disasters is strongly felt by those directly affected, they also have significant impacts on the mental and physical health of relief/recovery workers and volunteers. Variations in the nature and scale of disasters necessitate different approaches to risk management and hazard reduction during the response and recovery phases.Method:Published articles (2010-2017) on the quantitative and quantitative relationship between disasters and the physical and mental health of relief/recovery workers and volunteers were systematically collected and reviewed. A total of 162 relevant studies were identified. Physical injuries and mental health impacts were categorized into immediate, short-term, and chronic conditions. A systematic review of the literature was undertaken to explore the health risks and injuries encountered by disaster relief workers and volunteers, and to identify the factors contributing to these and relating mitigation strategies.Results:There were relatively few studies into this issue. However, the majority of the scrutinized articles highlighted the dependence of nature and scope of injuries with the disaster type and the types of responders, while the living and working environment and socio-economic standing also had significant influence on health outcomes.Conclusion:A conceptual framework derived from the literature review clearly illustrated several critical elements that directly or indirectly cause damage to physical and mental health of disaster responders. Pre-disaster and post-disaster risk mitigation approaches may be employed to reduce the vulnerability of both volunteers and workers while understanding the identified stressors and their relationships.Khatri KC J, Fitzgerald G, Poudyal Chhetri MB. Health risks in disaster responders: a conceptual framework. Prehosp Disaster Med. 2019;34(2):209–216

A járműgyártás adja a magyar ipari export egyharmadát, ezért fontos elemezni a COVID-19 terjedése miatt kialakuló keresleti-kínálati sokk szektorhatásait. Egyrészt kizsgáljuk, hogy a globális piacok összeomlása milyen termelési, foglakoztatási hatásokat indukált a szektorban, másrészt az új autók eladási statisztikái alapján nyomon követjük a belföldi kereslet rövid távú reagálását is. Elemezzük a vírussal kapcsolatban meghozott távolságtartási intézkedések hatására felvetődő kérdést: vajon lehetséges-e, hogy még ebben a helyhez kötöttnek tartott szektorban is van helye a rugalmas munkavégzésnek. Becslést készítünk a nemzetgazdasági szintű, valamint a járműgyártásra vonatkozó potenciális távmunka arányra. A modellszámítások alapján a járműgyártásban a munkahelyek 21,7%-a lenne elvégezhető távolról, rugalmas módon, ami elég magas, bár a becsült nemzetgazdasági átlag, a 28,7% alatt van. Since the one third of the Hungarian export comes from the automotive industry, it is important to analyze the impact of COVID-19 crisis on demand and supply in this industry. The paper gives a comprehensive picture of production and employment changes and tries to follow up the respond of domestic demand to the crisis relying on sales statistics. Furthermore, the study examines whether there are opportunities to work from home in this industry and finds that the 21,7% of the jobs could be done by working from home, which seems high, but is still below the national average 28,7%.

The increasing networked connectivity and affordability of technology facilitated the rise of digitally-mediated service work. Workers, mostly located in the Global South, can now directly obtain ‘gigs’ through online labor platforms and microwork intermediaries such as Upwork and Onlinejobs.ph. Within the Philippine digital labor economy, we see an emerging category of digital labor intermediaries—locally called peer mentors and coaches-- who are playing a significant role in the expansion and continued uptake of digital platform labor in the country. Building on and drawing connections between earlier works on the influencer economy (Abidin, 2015; Senft, 2013; and Marwick, 2013) and on labor migration brokerage literature (Shreshta & Yeoh, 2018; Lin, Lindquist, Xiang, & Yeoh, 2017), the paper conceptualizes digital labor brokerage arising within various ‘spaces of (labor) intermediation.’ Drawing from participant observation in online freelancing Facebook groups and interviews with these brokers and digital workers, we examine the transactional nature underlying the ‘producer-audience’ relationship of digital labor brokerage, the activation of trust and influence through mediated encounters, and the power dynamic underlying the digitally mediated symbolic and material power taking place between them and their respective teams. The paper seeks to contribute to the digital labor literature in two ways: 1) by characterizing the emergence of digital labor brokers in a digital labor supplying country in the global South, the role they play in the digital platform labor economy and the interventions that they engage; and 2) analyzing the structural conditions that facilitate the emergence of digital labor brokerage.

Since the COVID-19 pandemic entered Indonesia in early March 2020, theeconomy had stopped, thus affecting the socio-economic life of the community.With the pandemic, people's lives are mostly done at home (Work from Home)so that the use of digital platform technology in helping companies work on alarge and small scale, especially in small and medium enterprises in the startupworld. In the promotion strategy by utilizing it is also necessary to use a businessintelligence model which is an analytical tool in the form of business informationthat is used to consolidate, analyze, store and access a lot of data in the contextof business processes that lead to making decisions and actions with the aim ofimproving the performance of business or business strategies in the future.UMKM, especially in the province of Bangka Belitung. Therefore, we intend tocarry out service in educating the public with the theme "digital platformpromotion strategy to support UMKM in Bangka Belitung Province" which aimsto review the use of digital platform technology and the benefits of BusinessIntelligence in the digital business era.