The Effects of COVID-19 on the Socio-Economic Conditions of Marginal People: A Case Study in the Selected Districts of Bangladesh

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Line number missing!!

Follow journal style of reference 

 

Title: Good

Abstract: Give some result data with statistic (such as p value etc.) in abstract

 

Introduction: ok

 

Table 1: Give unit of different characteristics

Are only the significant factors are taken in different Tables?

Why, whether a respondent is COVID affected or not this character has not taken

Number of dependent family members is also an important factor which also should have been considered. 

Another factor missed is whether vaccinated or not

 

Otherwise the article is nice and can be used for policy making 

 

Author Response

Reviewer-1:

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

Action / Response: Our sincere thanks to the esteemed reviewer for his or her observations. In the revised manuscript we have tried best to address the raised issues.

Line number missing!!

Action / Response: As per journal’s formatting requirement, we did not provide line number of the manuscript.

Follow journal style of reference 

Action / Response: As per advice, we have corrected the references following the journal’s style in the revised manuscript.

Title: Good

Action / Response: Thanks for the comment.

Abstract: Give some result data with statistic (such as p value etc.) in abstract

Action / Response: In the revised manuscript we have provided the p values of the attained outcomes. (See Abstract section)

Introduction: ok

Action / Response: Thanks for the comment.

Table 1: Give unit of different characteristics

Action / Response: As per advice, we have provided unit of different characteristics in the revised manuscript.  

Are only the significant factors are taken in different Tables?

Action / Response: Thanks for the observation. For the brevity of the paper and formulating better policy outcomes we have mentioned only the significant factors and ignored insignificant determinants in all of our tables.  

Why, whether a respondent is COVID affected or not this character has not taken

Action / Response: Thanks for the observation. Due to social taboo and private issues the COVID affected people were not willing to disclose their sickness during the data collection period, so that we did not consider/ask them for estimation.

Number of dependent family members is also an important factor which also should have been considered. 

Action / Response: Thanks for the comment. In this paper we have considered only the total family members as household size, and recommendations are made to consider dependent family member for future research.

Another factor missed is whether vaccinated or not

Action / Response: Thanks for the comment. At the time of data collection the mass vaccination program was not available in the third world country like Bangladesh, so that we could not consider them under estimation.

Otherwise the article is nice and can be used for policy making 

Action / Response: Thanks for the observations and guidelines.

Reviewer 2 Report

The authors scrutinize the effect of Covid 19 on the business of people transport (via three wheeled carriages). They scrutinized 470 cases and compared socio-economic data of the drivers (or pullers) before and after Covid 19.

Their analysis is sound. The results are clearly stated and interpreted.

One may object that the results are not important for the economy as a whole. On the other hand, there are little to none analyses of such small businesses. Furthermore, the owner of these businesses may suffer a lot, and they may have little or no voice. Therefore I think the manuscript is worth being published in a scientific journal like sustainability.

There are no serious concerns but there are some shortcomings which should and could be fixed without too much effort.

For their statistical analysis the authors used SPSS and STATA. This is standard in most publications. However, these softwares are not without flaws. One will always get result for e.g. statistical significance. But in particular cases these results are meaningless. The referee things that the probability for it is not very big. Neither is there an easy fix for it. But the authors should at least comment on it. For more detail please see the enclosed manuscript with my comments.

Some of the variables are clear mathematical objects like income. It is possible and meaningful to build e.g. an average. There are also variables with the “values” yes/no. There the numbers 0 and 1 are assigned, respectively. This is also standard, and it is next to impossible to do otherwise. But making calculations with these assigned numbers may or may not yield mathematically arbitrary results. Again, it is next to impossible to fix but the authors should at least comment on it. For details please consult the enclosed manuscript.

As a last point there are some typos or malformation. The English appears to be perfect. (At least much better than the English of the referee) But the authors should read through the manuscript thoroughly. Some marks but for sure not all can be found in the enclosed manuscript.

Comments for author File: Comments.pdf

Author Response

Reviewer-2:

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

The authors scrutinize the effect of Covid 19 on the business of people transport (via three wheeled carriages). They scrutinized 470 cases and compared socio-economic data of the drivers (or pullers) before and after Covid 19.

Action / Response: Our heartiest thanks to the respected reviewer for his or her nice remarks.

Their analysis is sound. The results are clearly stated and interpreted.

Action / Response: Thanks for the comment.

One may object that the results are not important for the economy as a whole. On the other hand, there are little to none analyses of such small businesses. Furthermore, the owner of these businesses may suffer a lot, and they may have little or no voice. Therefore I think the manuscript is worth being published in a scientific journal like sustainability.

Action / Response: Thanks for the observation.

There are no serious concerns but there are some shortcomings which should and could be fixed without too much effort.

Action / Response: Thanks for the observation. In the revised manuscript we have tried best to comply with the raised issues.

For their statistical analysis the authors used SPSS and STATA. This is standard in most publications. However, these softwares are not without flaws. One will always get result for e.g. statistical significance. But in particular cases these results are meaningless. The referee things that the probability for it is not very big. Neither is there an easy fix for it. But the authors should at least comment on it. For more detail please see the enclosed manuscript with my comments.

Action / Response: Thanks for the comments. In the revised manuscript we have corrected the raised issues by consulting the enclosed manuscript.

Some of the variables are clear mathematical objects like income. It is possible and meaningful to build e.g. an average. There are also variables with the “values” yes/no. There the numbers 0 and 1 are assigned, respectively. This is also standard, and it is next to impossible to do otherwise. But making calculations with these assigned numbers may or may not yield mathematically arbitrary results. Again, it is next to impossible to fix but the authors should at least comment on it. For details please consult the enclosed manuscript.

Action / Response: Thanks for the comments. By consulting the enclosed manuscript we have corrected the raised issues in the revised manuscript.

As a last point there are some typos or malformation. The English appears to be perfect. (At least much better than the English of the referee) But the authors should read through the manuscript thoroughly. Some marks but for sure not all can be found in the enclosed manuscript.

Action / Response: Thanks for the observations. We have corrected all the suggested typos in the revised manuscript.

Reviewer 3 Report

Hello, dear colleagues.

The study was carried out on an actual topic. The recommendations are as follows: supplement the article with economic indicators:

- show the structure of income and expenses;

- analyze the Gini coefficient;

- make a forecast regarding the development of the analyzed market.

Author Response

Reviewer-3:

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

Hello, dear colleagues.

The study was carried out on an actual topic.

Action / Response: Our sincere thanks to the honoured reviewer for his or her nice remarks.

The recommendations are as follows:

-supplement the article with economic indicators:

Action / Response: Thanks for the observations. We have already included economic indicators like income, family expenditure, savings, working hours, health cost, etc in the study. Please see Table 1 and Table 2.

- show the structure of income and expenses;

Action / Response: We have already provided the structure of mean income and expenses in the manuscript in Table-2 (See Page# 7 of track changed manuscript).

- analyze the Gini coefficient;

Action / Response: Thanks for the comment. As we have taken primary data for estimation, for this reason we did not analyse the Gini coefficient. Moreover, we believe that analysis of Gini coefficient is not relevant here, as discussion of income inequality is not our aim in this study.

- make a forecast regarding the development of the analyzed market.

Action / Response: Thanks for the comment. We have observed the socio-economic conditions of marginal people by using primary data (analysis of COVID-19 effects) and made our conclusion and policy recommendations based on this. The forecasting regarding the development may be suitable for secondary data case. So we could not provide this in our manuscript.  In this study, we have assumed that market condition is constant/unchanged.

Round 2

Reviewer 3 Report

Good afternoon.

 

Thanks to the authors for an interesting article.