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This paper aims to identify and examine burden(s) among stroke survivors’ familial caregivers for the purposes of future mitigation of such burdens. The purpose is so because these caregivers become the persons responsible for monitoring the daily living activities of their patients and are thus tasked with providing and managing a whole host of recovery, therapy and re-integrative activities to rebalance and re-establish the physical, mental and social well-being of patients.

This literature review summarized and synthesized existing literature about the burden(s) caregivers experience and the effects upon them across four primary spheres of influence.

Familial caregivers of stroke survivors suffer from high levels of “care burden” because they are the primary participant in the planning and provisioning of care to the patients. Care burden is examined across four primary spheres of influence: physical, psychological, social and economic impacts. The current review shows that familial caregivers experience substantive impacts across all four spheres.

A professional multidisciplinary team should support caregivers of stroke survivors. To do this, support should be considered among the patient’s overall family system, as well as expanded to address and consider the specifically designated caregivers’ social circles which at a minimum often consists of co-workers, friends and inter-familial relationships. Ideally, caregiver support would also consist of medical and professional case workers that can address further, and in an integrative delivery approach, all four of the highlighted spheres of influence to establish a “best practices” orientation to familial caregivers.

This research documents the responsibilities and stresses of people with homeless relatives. Health and housing problems create a variety of challenges and sometimes burdens within families which are particularly stressful for family caregivers who are actively involved with helping homeless adults.

Our study and data examine stress proliferation and stress buffering among people with homeless relatives using quantitative data from 118 interviews, mostly with parents and siblings of homeless adults.

Quantitative data from 118 interviews, largely from parents and siblings of homeless adults, show that people who spend more time or money helping homeless relatives experience higher levels of stress. Stress levels are also higher among those who help a homeless relative with activities of daily living and those who work to prevent harm that involves a homeless relative. Stress derived from efforts to prevent harm is associated with stronger social support to people with homeless relatives.

Social and health service providers can provide helpful social support for both homeless people and for people with homeless relatives, particularly in circumstances where harm reduction is required.

The burden social theorists must be willing to accept, respond to, and act upon pertains to the difficulties that predictably accompany all efforts to convey to nontheorists the unwelcome fact of heteronomy – that as actors, we are not as autonomous as we were told and prefer to assume – and to spell out what heteronomy in the form in which it has been shaping the developmental trajectory of modern societies means for professional theorists. I introduce the concept of “vitacide,” designed to capture that termination of life is a potential vanishing point of the heteronomous processes that have been shaping modern societies continuing to accelerate and intensify in ways that prefigure our future, but not on our human or social terms. Heteronomy pointing toward vitacide should compel us as social theorists to consider critically both the constructive and destructive trajectory that social change appears to have been following for more than two centuries, irrespective of whether the resulting prospect is to our liking or not. In this context, the classical critical theorists of the early Frankfurt School, especially Max Horkheimer and Theodor W. Adorno, pursued what turned out to be an evolving interest in rackets, the authoritarian personality, and the administered society – concepts that served as foils for delineating the kind of theoretical stance that is becoming more and more important as we are moving into an increasingly uncertain future.

This article analyzes the impact of social insurance on firm performance by obtaining evidence from Vietnamese small- and medium-sized enterprises.

The method employed in the research is the generalized method of moments for testing hypotheses of data collected from the General Statistics Office of Vietnam.

The results show that social insurance contributions can enhance firm performance in three dimensions: return on equity (ROE), labor productivity and total factor productivity (TFP). In addition, financial leverage, firm size, the average wage of workers and fixed assets have an impact on the social insurance costs of these companies.

This article provides a novel explanation of the contribution of social insurance to firm performance. In particular, social insurance contribution not only increases labor productivity but also boosts the growth of the TFP of companies. In addition, the article points out that taking care of the benefits of employees is a valuable investment of companies. These are the unique contributions of the paper to the literature on the economic impact of social insurance.

The purpose of this paper is to focus on links between former “Heilbronn Symposia” on social, economic and political changes, and evolutionary concepts of the nineteenth and early twentieth century to solve the “Social Question” (“S. Qu.”) in Germany.

The approach is based on references to authors of German historical schools, social policy, labor economics and liberal economic policy. The paper supplies a literature review in the area of social policy. It starts from different earlier definitions of the S. Qu. An overview is provided of selected studies of formerly leading German authors, who basically investigated economic and social policies conditioned by the existing economic system. The contents demonstrate different perspectives of the considered authors: Wilhelm Roscher's long‐term, even “modern” view of the development of property and wealth; Gustav Schmoller's broad view of economic and social development, demanding a strong state, efficient organizations of entrepreneurs and trade unions; Lujo Brentano's demand of basic institutional changes concerning labor markets and social security by trade unions; authors of different social‐economic studies written at the twentieth century, like Leopold von Wiese, Walter Eucken, Gerhard Weisser and Hans Peter Widmaier.

The findings point out: not all of the considered authors applied the same long‐term view; all of the authors demonstrated negative social effects of industrialization; authors of the twentieth century pointed out a broader concern of S. Qu. and social policy than former authors.

Areas of future research include: a broadening perspective of long‐term studies, and an increasing demand for analyses of social disturbances and of effects of social policy on the distribution of life conditions.

The comparison of selected authors focusing on their views of the S. Qu. in Germany during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries allows for special conclusions related to the causes, performance and measures to solve or at least reduce the burden of the S. Qu. in the considered economy.

Fiscal policy is one of the weighty instruments of state regulation and is intended to ensure the creation of an institutional environment to reach the strategic objectives of sustainable development. This chapter is devoted to the study of the implementation of tax reform in Belarus. It analyzes the place of tax instruments in economic growth and investigates the strategic direction of tax reforms. The actual tax policy in Belarus is determined by the requirements of the national strategy of sustainable development which aims to ensure a stable financial basis for the development of society, economy, and environmental management. The historical and economic conditions of Belarus require an assessment of the local peculiarities of the use of tax instruments, which are now in force in leading countries. Therefore the study of foreign experience is complemented by an analysis of local conditions. Tax policy must ensure and support changes in national economies related to globalization, informatization and digitalization of the modern world, while maintaining the ideas of social justice. As a theoretical and practical tool for improving the quality of the tax system through the modernization of the incentives system, the concept of tax expenditures as a part of the budget process was investigated.

The tax evasion phenomenon affects the economic systems of European countries in different ways. The literature shows that individuals provide biased information both to administrative agencies and household surveys. The effects of tax evasion could thus influence the income inequality computed in official statistics.

In this paper, I investigate whether tax evasion generates a bias when inequality indices are computed using household survey data. To achieve this, I apply a parametric model of the Dagum type (three parameters) on the gross personal income of 27 European countries, distinguishing between the self-employed and employees. Subsequently, the parameters computed in the model are used as dependent variables in seemingly unrelated regressions.

I find that for the self-employed, tax evasion tends to reduce inequality as measured by regular wage statistics. Thus, the results reveal that tax evasion distorts inequality indices, generating an underground inequality.

This paper aims to bring into surface two major socioeconomic problems of Greece, tax evasion and shadow economy.

It examines the determinants and the factors that led to the formation and expansion of tax evasion and subsequently of black economy. Empirical data and related research are used to provide a clearer view of the existing situation.

Tax evasion and shadow economy are proved to remain two of the most severe problems that torture Greek economy. The factors that contribute the most to the formation of these phenomena are the lack of tax awareness, the tax burden, the structure of the tax system, the role of the state, the level of approvement of public authority, self-employment, unemployment and the level of organization of the economy. Except from the negative characteristics, positive ones are also identified, and certain policies are suggested so as to combat tax evasion and black economy.

The paper highlights two major issues that constitute the deadly weakness of the Greek economy, providing a holistic view of the current situation, identifying the roots of the problem and suggesting specific measures.

Despite evidence that violent daydreaming is a correlate of suicidal ideation, no research has examined the mechanisms underlying this association. The interpersonal theory of suicide may provide insight. This theory postulates that individuals with high suicidal desire experience intractable feelings of perceived burdensomeness (PB) and thwarted belongingness (TB). Violent daydreaming may fuel negative attitudes toward others and oneself and turn attention away from loved ones, thereby increasing feelings that one is a burden on others (PB) and socially disconnected (TB). However, no studies have tested TB and PB as explanatory mechanisms. The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationships between violent daydreaming, PB, TB, suicidal ideation, and depression in two samples (n=818).

Study 1 was comprised of general undergraduates, and Study 2 selected for undergraduates with a history of ideation. Self-report measures were administered and indirect effects analyses were conducted.

In both studies, violent daydreaming was associated with increased feelings of PB, TB, and ideation severity. Consistent with the interpersonal theory, TB and PB were significant parallel mediators of the relationship between violent daydreaming and suicidal ideation, beyond sex and age. In contrast to Study 1, results were no longer significant in Study 2 after accounting for depression.

This was the first study to test TB and PB as mechanisms underlying the relationship between violent daydreaming and suicide risk. Findings highlight the importance of monitoring and addressing violent daydreams and interpersonal functioning throughout treatment to mitigate risk.

Increased economic insecurity helps to spur individuals to work harder and be more efficient according to the theory of work incentive. However, in a civilised society, the society has a moral obligation to provide basic needs and social safety nets for its poor and unfortunate members who, due to factors beyond their own control, have not been able to earn a living. This paper analyses the trade‐off between economic reforms and economic and social security in India and China. The findings show that both countries’ attempts to minimise the social costs of economic reforms have not been successful. The policy implications are also discussed.