The paper addresses the alternative policy options available to address the question of lives versus livelihood in an SIRD model augmented with a macroeconomic structure. An important contribution of the paper lies in designing the policy of lockdown dependent on the extent of the constraint on the health facilities. The paper supplements the literature with a less stringent version of the lockdown policy, viz. soft lockdown policy which is shown to be more attractive from a public policy standpoint and has actually been practised in many countries across the globe during the recent pandemic. Finally, the optimal policy derived on the basis of the level of lockdown and adjustment of the binding constraint on health facilities depends on the objective of policy makers contingent on the relative weights of lives versus livelihood.

The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the everyday ways of life across the world. The objective of this study is to understand the impacts of nationwide lockdown restrictions on female workforce of New Zealand. To conduct this study three subsets were selected: working mothers, essential workers and women in high-risk industries. New Zealand has a gender segregated workforce, and more women on the frontline as essential workers who faced risks from COVID-19. A quantitative approach based on secondary data published by the Government of New Zealand was employed in this study. The analysis was carried out under three themes: family wellbeing, essential workers and women in high-risk industries. All the themes point to the fact that the working women of New Zealand indeed have been critically impacted compared with working men.

Part of the present inflation is caused by the breakdown of globalization, in particular supply chains, part is caused by the Corona Pandemic, in particular lockdowns, part is caused by the Ukrainian War, part is caused by European sanctions, and part – and not the smallest one – is caused by the European Central Bank’s printing money by hook or by crook in the past and in the presence. This paper attributes inflation decisively to the overwhelming money creation by the European Central Bank.

Entrepreneurs are important actors in economic activities and creators of social wealth. Excellent entrepreneurs contribute their wisdom to the accumulation of social wealth and the promotion of high-quality economic and social development. The business environment is the main manifestation of the soft power of cities and regional economic development, and a better business environment can effectively attract enterprises and promote their sustainable growth. Using data from Chinese A-share listed companies from 2009-2019 as a research sample, the following research conclusions were drawn: (1) A better business environment helps enhance entrepreneurship. (2) A better business environment promotes entrepreneurship by reducing rent-seeking expenses and corporate credit costs. (3) Compared to traditional enterprises, high-tech enterprises are better able to enjoy the benefits brought by business environment optimization and further enhance entrepreneurship. When competition is low, entrepreneurs face lower rent-seeking expenses, which is conducive to stimulating entrepreneurship. The businessenvironment can promote fairness and bring more equal financing opportunities for enterprises, which has a higher impact on entrepreneurship for the group facing higher financing constraints. This study meticulously analyzes the impact ofthebusiness environment on entrepreneurship, providing references for the next steps of optimizing the business environment and enhancing entrepreneurship.