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Book review: Rajib Bhattacharyya, Ramesh Chandra Das, and Achintya Ray (Eds.), COVID-19 Pandemic and Global Inequality: Reflections in Labour Market, Business and Social Sectors

Document Cited in Related
Published date01 February 2025
DOIhttp://doi.org/10.1177/00157325241258790
AuthorDebashis Chakraborty
Date01 February 2025
Book Review
Rajib Bhattacharyya, Ramesh Chandra Das, and Achintya Ray (Eds.),
COVID-19 Pandemic and Global Inequality: Reflections in Labour Market,
Business and Social Sectors (Singapore: Springer Nature, 2023), 333 pp.
€128.39 (Hardcover), ISBN 978-981-99-4404-0.
The outbreak of the COVID-19 and the subsequent disruptions in regular eco-
nomic activities led to signicant inability at the global level. While the unan-
ticipated nature of the shock inuenced the immediate policy response patterns
of the countries, the long-term interventions and corrective measures were deter-
mined by the scal space and demography-related ground realities. As a result,
the road to recovery diered widely across countries, with crucial growth and
inequality consequences. The volume edited by Bhattacharyya et al., an attempt
to analyse the implications of the pandemic on labour market, business and social
sectors from multiple country perspectives, is therefore a timely contribution to
the exiing literature.
The 20 chapters included in the volume, focussing on economic implications
in the aftermath of COVID-19, are placed under two sub-themes. The first sub-
theme focuses on the impact of the pandemic from country-level evidence. Based
on data from Nigeria, Chapter 1 concludes that while ination uncertainty may
not jeopardise the domestic industrial growth path, similar uncertainty at the inter-
national level may require close monitoring. Based on 17 indicators, Chapter 2
outlines how the sustainable development scenario worsened in Europe from
2018 to 2020, despite an improvement in the preceding period. Analysing the
massive scal expansion and cash transfers in the United States to protect small-
and medium-sized businesses and jobs, Chapter 3 records their effects reflected
in multiple forums (e.g., rise in savings pattern, inationary pressures and asset
prices). Through a time-series analysis involving developed and emerging
countries affected most by the pandemic, Chapter 4 confirms how Covid cases
and death instances influenced the business condence index and consumers’
condence index therein. Chapter 5 underlines the adverse influence of the
COVID-19–related health crisis and deaths on liquidity ratio, bank loan-to-deposit
ratio, indebtedness and debt-to-GDP ratio in Nigeria. Focussing on the effects of
Foreign Trade Review
60(1) 137–139, 2025
© 2024 Indian Institute of
Foreign Trade
Article reuse guidelines:
in.sagepub.com/journals-permissions-india
DOI: 10.1177/00157325241258790
journals.sagepub.com/home/ftr

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