The COVID-19 Pandemic: Lessons for Financially Fragile and Aging Societies

Economic Fragility of Older Adults: Factors Contributing to a Continuing Crisis

With rapid population aging in the U.S. a greater number of older adults now experience economic insecurity, a situation disproportionately affecting older people of color. The COVID pandemic, rising inflation, and increasing economic inequality have reduced the purchasing power of both wages and fixed incomes. Compared with prior cohorts, the current cohort of adults at or nearing retirement age faces higher levels of secured and unsecured debt burden from mortgages, home equity loans, student loans, credit cards, and out-of-pocket medical costs. Long-standing disparities in opportunities and generational wealth have resulted in more outstanding debt for Black older adults than their white counterparts. This "financial fragility" may result in older people foregoing proper nutrition, doctor's visits, needed medications, or home or car repairs, while stress about finances may contribute to chronic health and mental health conditions. Along with programs to educate and advise older adults on their pressing financial concerns, practitioners who interact with older people in many settings should incorporate needed financial assessment and referrals into their work with this population. Professional and continuing education should ensure financial literacy and awareness of financial fragility for those working with older adults.

The influence of the pandemic on financial decisions made by individuals in Turkey: A cross-sectional study

The citizens of Turkey were confronted with the shock of the Covid-19 pandemic while struggling with high inflation and unemployment rates, and a weakening domestic currency. However, a noteworthy phenomenon during the year 2020 was the performance of stock market in Turkey, which was mostly driven by local individuals. Not only stocks, but cryptocurrencies are also popular investments favored by the populace, collectively signaling an increase in risk-taking behavior. Learning more about this point of interest is even more intriguing when considering the ongoing poor economic circumstances. In this study, the financial product decisions of individuals living in Turkey are examined for the first year of pandemic. The data were collected using an Internet survey. Information on participant’s demographics, financial product choices, declarations on changes in their interest in financial markets/products, financial status, and net income after Covid-19 was used. The results show that changes were associated with several product preferences, particularly with cryptocurrency. The findings indicate that regulators/authorities need to understand the reasons and conditions which influence those financial decisions and intervene if necessary because such excessive risk taking may eventually deteriorate social and financial wealth across the whole country.

What Influences the Financial Literacy of Young Adults? A Combined Analysis of Socio-Demographic Characteristics and Delay of Gratification

The current economic landscape is complex and globalized, and it imposes on individuals the responsibility for their own financial security. This situation has been intensified by the COVID-19 crisis, since short-time work and layoffs significantly limit the availability of financial resources for individuals. Due to the long duration of the lockdown, these challenges will have a long-term impact and affect the financial well-being of many citizens. Moreover, it can be assumed that the consequences of this crisis will once again particularly affect groups of people who have already frequently been identified as having low financial literacy. Financial literacy is therefore an important target for educational measures and interventions. However, it cannot be considered in isolation but must take into account the many potential factors that influence financial literacy alone or in combination. These include personality traits and socio-demographic factors as well as the (in)ability to defer gratification. Against this background, individualized support offers can be made. With this in mind, in the first step of this study, we analyze the complex interaction of personality traits, socio-demographic factors, the (in-)ability to delay gratification, and financial literacy. In the second step, we differentiate the identified effects regarding different groups to identify moderating effects, which, in turn, allow conclusions to be drawn about the need for individualized interventions. The results show that gender and educational background moderate the effects occurring between self-reported financial literacy, financial learning opportunities, delay of gratification, and financial literacy.

Why is COVID-19 more deadly to nursing home residents?

COVID-19 is deadly to older adults, with research showing that being older and having underlying chronic diseases are significant risk factors for COVID-19 related deaths. However, though similarities exist between both nursing home residents and older community-dwelling people, nursing home residents are substantially more vulnerable to COVID-19. A closer review of both demographic groups provides clarity concerning the difference within the context of COVID-19. Therefore, to address the research gap, drawing insights from Maslow's hierarchy of needs model, this article aims to examine similarities and differences in COVID-19 risk factors experienced by nursing home residents and community-dwelling older people.

Rapid Review on COVID-19, Work-Related Aspects, and Age Differences

The COVID-19 pandemic significantly impacted the labor market and multiple aspects of work and workers' life. The present rapid review analyzes this impact considering the effects that COVID-19 pandemic had on employment and work-related aspects across different age groups. A comprehensive literature search was performed on scientific contributions published between 2019 and March 2021, resulting in 36 papers pertinent to the scope of this review. Findings were grouped according to different topics, all linked to age: occupational risk, implications on the labor market (i.e., job loss and reemployment, job insecurity, turnover intentions and retirement, and healthcare workers' return-to-work phase), remote work, and key individual and organizational resources and strategies. Overall, the review revealed variability across age groups in the impact this pandemic had on employment and several work-related aspects (i.e., occupational risk, remote work). Findings supported an age-differential effect of normative history-graded events such as the current pandemic, highlighting different responses and consequences depending on workers' age.

Could thermodynamics and heat and mass transfer research produce a fundamental step advance toward and significant reduction of SARS-COV-2 spread?

We are living an extraordinary season of uncertainty and danger, which is caused by SARS-Cov-2 infection and consequent COVID-19 infection. This preliminary study comes from both a mix of entrepreneurial experience and scientific research. It is aimed by the exigency to reach a new and more effective analysis of the risks on the filed and to reduce them inside a necessary cooperation process which may regard both research and some of the economic activities which are damaged by passive protection measures such as indiscriminate lockdowns. This global emergency requires specific efforts by any discipline that regards specific problems which need to be solved urgently. The characteristic airborne diffusion patterns of COVID-19 shows that the airborne presence of viruses depends on multiple factors which include the dimension of microdroplets emitted by a contagious person, the atmospheric temperature and humidity, the presence of atmospheric particulate and pollution, which may act as a transport vehicle for the virus. The pandemic diffusion shows a particular correlation with the air quality and levels of atmospheric pollution. Specific problems need to solved to understand better the virus, its reliability, diffusion, replication, how it attacks the persons and the conditions, which drives to both positive and deadly evolution of the illness. Most of these problems may benefit from the contribution from both heat and mass transfer and the unsteady thermodynamics of living systems which evolves according to constructal law. After the bibliographic research on the virus, emissive and spread modes, and consequent today adopted protection, a detailed analysis of the contributions which may be assessed by research in thermodynamics, heat and mass transfer, technical and chemical physics. Some possible areas of research have been identified and discussed to start an effective mobilization which may support the effort of the research toward a significant reduction of the impacts of the pandemic infection and the economic risks of new generalized lockdowns.

Generations and Generational Differences: Debunking Myths in Organizational Science and Practice and Paving New Paths Forward

Talk about generations is everywhere and particularly so in organizational science and practice. Recognizing and exploring the ubiquity of generations is important, especially because evidence for their existence is, at best, scant. In this article, we aim to achieve two goals that are targeted at answering the broad question: "What accounts for the ubiquity of generations despite a lack of evidence for their existence and impact?" First, we explore and "bust" ten common myths about the science and practice of generations and generational differences. Second, with these debunked myths as a backdrop, we focus on two alternative and complementary frameworks-the social constructionist perspective and the lifespan development perspective-with promise for changing the way we think about age, aging, and generations at work. We argue that the social constructionist perspective offers important opportunities for understanding the persistence and pervasiveness of generations and that, as an alternative to studying generations, the lifespan perspective represents a better model for understanding how age operates and development unfolds at work. Overall, we urge stakeholders in organizational science and practice (e.g., students, researchers, consultants, managers) to adopt more nuanced perspectives grounded in these models, rather than a generational perspective, to understand the influence of age and aging at work.