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This study analyses the socioeconomic impact of COVID-19 on government accountability regarding the employment of both national and migrant workforces by bringing evidence from an emerging market. In doing so, this study addresses if/how the government discharged its accountability to the public during this recent global health crisis, which started in late 2019, with its effects still being felt today.

This study is based on a close reading of the relevant news media (local and international), published research and official reports, as well as ten conversations with business managers to analyse the socioeconomic impact of COVID-19 on government accountability in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). This study draws on insights from public choice theory in trying to understand why some governments take an economic perspective while exercising accountability to their population during the pandemic.

It was found that COVID-19 led the government to pursue plans for the localization of the professions and increase employment rates among nationals vs. foreigners or migrant workers. The crisis was exploited by the government to achieve macro socio-political and economic goals, demonstrating its accountability to citizens, rather than foreign workers. This shift shows that difficult and exceptional circumstances can present opportunities for policymakers in emerging markets to achieve national policy and political aims.

This study enhances the author’s understanding of accountability during crises (i.e. crises-induced accountability) in emerging markets. The analyses presented enrich the crisis management literature by highlighting the implicit actions of national leaders that affect the lives and well-being of their constituents, especially vulnerable groups.

The sound viability of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) positively influences nations’ economic growth. Studies investigating the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on SMEs in Saudi Arabia (KSA) and how the owners will source for working capital and short-term loans to kick start in the post-Covid-19 recovery are scarce. Hence, this study aims to investigate the perceived negative impact of Covid-19 on SMEs and suggests policy solutions to improve access to finance and investment sustainability for the SMEs owners in the post-Covid-19 recovery via the stakeholders’ perception in KSA.

The paper sourced data from Medina, Riyadh and Alqassim via virtual interviews. The study engaged SMEs owners, government agencies and banks within the covered regions in KSA. The sourced data were analysed via a thematic, and the results were presented in themes.

The findings show that the SMEs sector plays a pertinent role in KSA gross domestic product growth. But, the recent ravaging of the SME sector by the Covid-19 pandemic was adversely unprecedented, and stakeholders were caught unaware. The paper categorised the perceived impacts into most severe, severe and fairly severe. The findings show that SMEs sector post-Covid-19 recovery will require access to finance-friendly policies to revive the unique sector. This should be supported with an enabling business environment via policies that encourage investment and sustainability to achieve KSA Vision 2030.

The study is restricted to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on SMEs and data collected via virtual interviews across three cities in KSA. Other developing Islamic nations can modify the policy suggestions from this paper to improve their SMEs sectors.

The significance of a robust SMEs sector to grow the economy has been established. The emerged recommendations from this paper may provide insights to the policymakers and other stakeholders. This will enhance the rebuilding of the SMEs sector across KSA in the post-Covid-19 era.

This study is unique because it investigated the impacts of the ravaging pandemic on SMEs owners and proffered possible solutions for quick post-Covid-19 recovery from the KSA stakeholders’ perspective.

For almost two years, the economic shocks and financial uncertainty created by the Covid-19 pandemic have affected all sectors. The private sector employees may be the worst hit. This is because of the lockdown across many countries, including the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), leading to income irregularities. Studies exploring private-sector employees concerning housing finance for the houses purchased and how the lockdown has affected their sources of income for repayment plans are scarce. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the possible early negative impacts of Covid-19 on private sector employees’ housing finance homeownership in KSA.

A phenomenology type of qualitative research was used. Data were sourced from three cities (Riyadh, Al-Qassim and Medina) and three mortgage banks across KSA. Virtual interviews via Zoom and WhatsApp video calls were conducted with engaged participants (bankers, government agencies and private sector employees). Thematic analysis was adopted, and the analysed data was presented in themes.

Findings show that the partial and full lockdown resulted in income irregularities in many private businesses. Also, findings identified downsizing, leading to large-scale unemployment, half-monthly income for employees, loss of profit, human resources wastage, etc. Findings reveal that because of the economic shock, many homeowners have not been able to meet up with their monthly mortgage repayment obligation. Also, the absence of financial support in form of socioeconomic needs has not helped the matter.

The paper is limited to the early negative impacts of Covid-19 on private sector employees’ housing finance homeownership in KSA and data collected via Zoom and WhatsApp video calls across the three main cities. The recommendations that will emerge from this study may be adopted by other Gulf and Islamic countries with similar homeownership repayment challenges.

This study would stir key stakeholders, especially the policymakers and mortgage institutions to consider future policy principles that focus on who is at the highest risk for housing-related hardships because of the Covid-19 or future pandemic. The outcome can be used to develop an equitable housing policy framework to foster long-term economic mobility and be validated in the future by scholars.

Similar research in this area is limited, which makes this study one of the pioneering attempts to investigate the early negative impacts of Covid-19 on private sector employees’ housing finance homeownership in KSA. The paper sheds light on the emerged early negative impacts and proffer feasible possible solutions to promote homeownership amongst Saudi citizens.

Even with the Saudi Arabian Government's discretionary measures to mitigate the spread of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), the economic sectors were not spared from the damage. Thus, the paper aims to use a computable general equilibrium (CGE) model to evaluate the impact of COVID-19 on the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia's (KSA) economy, with a special focus on small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and production. These influence the level of poverty.

The paper adopted the social accounting matrix (SAM) for Saudi Arabia built in 2021 by Imtithal Althumairi from Saudi Arabia's 2017 SAM. The model represents a snapshot of the economy and different flows that exist within the tasks and institutions. Two simulations (mild and severe) were conducted because of the focus on the distributional outcomes.

Decrease in job creation and economic growth were significant evidence from the study's findings. Findings show that more families hit below the poverty line because the negative impacts of the pandemic have shifted the income allocation curve. Findings show that the weakest of the poor are mitigated by government social grants during the pandemic.

The paper is restricted to the relevant literature relating to the impact of COVID-19 on Saudi Arabia's economy and evaluated using the SAM model. Moreover, the COVID-19 is still an ongoing scenario; thus, the model should be updated as data utilised for the operationalisation are made available.

The information from the suggested model can be suitable to measure the degree of the harm, and thus, the likely extent of the desirable policy feedback. Also, the model can be updated, as data are made available and formulated policies based on the updated data implemented by the policymakers.

Apart from the recovery planning of SMEs during the pandemic, the paper intends to stir up Saudi Arabia's policymakers through the macro-micro model to recovery planning and resilience of the economy with emphasis on mitigating unemployment.

This study mainly focuses on the potentiality of the e-commerce industry's opportunities and limitations in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) specifically toward non-oil revenue sectors.

E-commerce contribution to the retail market industry becomes more global and more flexible with the rapid growth of the Internet and information technology revolution. A new way of conducting business is rendered by e-commerce, which helps to make a profit electronically.

The main contributions of e-commerce are management of company operations, easy and cheaper ways of extending their markets and coordinating with the value chain across different borders. In addition, the Internet and e-commerce are responsible for removing language barriers, cultural diversification and extending the market to the national boundaries. The countries would have many innovative and dynamic aspects by the beginning of the global market that increases national revenue, market, employment opportunity, capital and access to technology and information.

At present, KSA's national revenue mostly depends on oil and its related commodities, while other trades compete with the global market and increase national income. So, it is essential to increase other Saudi products to reach a global business level through e-commerce. Moreover, the study suggests accessing new markets and participating in global production to improve e-commerce structure without affecting current employment patterns, industry structure, productivity and Saudi culture.

The purpose of this paper is to provide comprehensive, theoretical and practical knowledge that will assist decision-makers in making informed decisions when promoting several religious sites in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). Specifically, this study examines the popularity of several religious sites, the personas of prospective visitors and their intentions to visit.

The study uses several methodological approaches to fulfil its main objective, namely, Google Trends analysis, K-means cluster analysis and linear regression analysis.

The results reveal that several religious sites in the KSA are popular and have potential for further consideration by various stakeholders. In addition, four personas were identified which can aid decision-makers and marketing practitioners in designing suitable plans for prospective visitors based on the participants’ motivation and demographics. Furthermore, a significant association was observed among three motivational variables (self-esteem, relationship and physiological needs) and the participants’ intentions to visit.

This study makes an original contribution to the literature, as it examines several religious sites in Saudi Arabia in addition to the sites that are part of the practices of Hajj and Umrah. Furthermore, this study provides comprehensive knowledge in this area to assist both future researchers and practitioners.

Affordable housing provision is one of the visions of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), as highlighted in Vision 2030. For about 21 months now, the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has ravaged the world and has increased the level of economic crisis and financial uncertainty to achieve planned projects. Studies investigating the reality of how the COVID-19 pandemic may streamline the chances of achieving affordable housing for all in 2030 are scarce. Thus, this study examined the relevance of affordable housing, the perceived impact of COVID-19 on affordable housing and proffered measures to promote affordable housing finance in Vision 2030.

Medina, Riyadh and Al Qassim were the participants' cities engaged via panel interviews and supported by existing relevant Vision 2030 documents. The Delphi method was adopted to explore the government officials, financial operators (bankers), academicians and employees' opinions, and the analysed data presented in themes.

Findings show that SA Vision 2030 blueprint expresses an exemplary country in all ramifications, including affordable housing finance for the citizens. Findings reveal that the COVID-19 pandemic threatens SA affordable housing finance Vision 2030. The increased housing shortage, high construction housing cost, increased foreclosures, increased eviction, possible homelessness, financial instability and vulnerability emerged as the perceived impact of COVID-19 on affordable housing finance in Vision 2030. Refinancing housing loans to boost Vision 2030, forbearance to promote Vision 2030, improve payment relief, among others, emerged as measures to promote affordable housing in the post-COVID-19 era.

The research only identified the possible negative impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on affordable housing finance in Vision 2030 and proffered policy solutions from the engaged participants' perspective. Also, the study covered three cities (Medina, Riyadh and Al Qassim). The suggestions that will emerge from this research may be adopted to address other sectors captured in Vision 2030 that are critical and hit by the ravaging pandemic.

Measures such as refinancing mortgages and strengthening government housing agencies will promote affordable housing for Vision 2030 if the relevant policymakers and mortgage institutions are well implemented.

This research identified the perceived early threats from the COVID-19 pandemic that could affect affordable housing transformation in Vision 2030 from the participants' perspective. Studies regarding COVID-19 and affordable housing in Vision 2030 are very few.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of the global coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic on stock market liquidity, while taking into account the depth and tightness dimensions.

The author used a panel data regression on stock market dataset, representing 314 listed firms operating in six Middle East and North African (MENA) countries from February to May 2020.

The regression results on the overall sample indicate that the liquidity related to the depth measure was positively correlated with the growth in the confirmed number of cases and deaths and stringency index. Moreover, the market depth was positively related to the confirmed cases of COVID-19. The results also indicate that the liquidity of small cap and big cap firms was significantly impacted by the confirmed number of cases, while the stringency index is only significant for the liquidity depth measure. Moreover, the results regarding sectors and country level analysis confirmed that COVID-19 had a significant and negative impact of stock market liquidity.

This paper confirms that the global coronavirus pandemic has decreased the stock market liquidity in terms of both the depth and the tightness dimensions.

While most empirical papers focused on the impact of the COVID-19 global pandemic on stock market returns, this paper investigated liquidity chock at firm level in the MENA region using both tightness and depth dimensions.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of COVID-19 on some fiscal and monetary indicators in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

The research relied on data, studies and reports issued by the International Monetary Fund, Arab Monetary Fund, Saudi Central Bank, Investing Website and the World in Data Website.

Many sectors have been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, which outbreak has been associated with a high cost, in addition to increased inflation and prices, a result that was confirmed by the increase in consumer price indices for different sectors. The general consumer price index for the second period rose above that of the first period, while an upward shift occurred in the curve depicting the Saudi Riyal exchange rate against the United States (US) dollar during the second period above that of the first period, only in slope, due to outbreak of the pandemic. Impact of the number of daily new cases infected with COVID-19 was the highest on the opening and closing price indices of the food retail sector, the pharmaceutical sector and the transportation sector; while impact of the number of daily deaths by COVID-19 was the highest on the opening and closing price indices of the banking sector, the general index and the investment and finance sector. In addition, impact of the daily reproduction rate of COVID-19 was the highest on the opening price indices of the energy sector, the food production sector and the transportation sector.

The research aims to demonstrate measures taken by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia through fiscal and monetary policies.

The COVID-19 pandemic is still an ongoing global pandemic. The virus was first identified in Wuhan City in China at the beginning of December 2019. At the end of January 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared that the outbreak of the virus represented a public health emergency, and later, on March 11, 2020, WHO declared the situation had transformed into a pandemic. Until January 17, 2022, the pandemic had caused more than 328 million cases and 545 million deaths, while 188 million of the cases had recovered. It is worth mentioning that the pandemic caused several social and economic disruptions, including a global economic recession; shortages in goods, supplies and equipment due to consumers' panic and thus tendency to buy; besides causing other disruptions like the negative impacts on health, as well as political, cultural, religious and sport events that influenced economic policies, including both the fiscal and monetary policies of world countries (Wikipedia, 2022).

Social implications steps that taken to reduce the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, in addition to measuring the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic (as the main event next to which other events fade up) on some of the fiscal and monetary indicators for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

The research aims to demonstrate measures taken by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia through fiscal and monetary policies to mitigate the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, in addition to measuring the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic (as the main event next to which other events fade up) on some of the fiscal and monetary indicators for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

This paper investigates the performance of locally focused equity mutual funds (LFEFs) in Saudi Arabia as compared with the performance of benchmark funds. More specifically, the focal question pertains to whether Shariah-compliant mutual funds (SMFs) and conventional mutual funds (CMFs) outperform their respective benchmarks. Undertaken in the context of Saudi Arabia's economic planning under Vision 2030, the study offers a foundation for determining whether and the extent to which Shariah-compliant investment strategies are competitive—a matter of considerable importance across 57 Muslim countries.

The Carhart four-factor model is applied to a sample of 39 Saudi Arabian mutual funds (MFs) using the monthly net asset value (NAV) per share. The sample period, April 2007 to October 2016, is considered in its entirety and as three sub-periods, i.e. low-, medium- and high-volatility.

The results show that the locally focused equity mutual funds (LFEFs) significantly outperformed their benchmark, i.e. the Tadawul All Share Index (TASI), during the full sample period and the low-volatility period. According to the empirical comparison, the CMFs also outperformed their TASI benchmark for the full sample period and the low-volatility period. However, the SMFs neither outperformed nor underperformed their S&P Saudi Arabia Domestic Shariah Index benchmark. That is, for each of the SMFs included in the sample, the Jensen's alpha was insignificant for both the full sample and all three volatility sub-periods.

In this paper, the four-factor model is used in the context of a single country. The results, therefore, may not be generalizable to the multi-country level in the Gulf Council Cooperation (GCC) region given differences between the member countries in terms of financial structure and economic focus.

The results reported constitute a useful guide for policymakers and faith-based-sensitive investors concerned about the Shariah compliancy of their portfolios given that there is very little difference between how CMFs and SMFs performed in the focal period. This research can be extended to include other Islamic countries in the GCC region as a basis for identifying optimal investment vehicles, i.e. those most likely to produce high returns at low risk.

The work reported in this paper is original and constitutes a valuable asset for ethnoreligious-sensitive investors. The research has not been published in any capacity and is not under consideration for publication elsewhere.