Employment Support and COVID-19: Is Working Time Reduction the Right Tool?

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

The abstract is way too general, and thus it demands substantive revision so as to accurately summarize the contents of the article (topic, current beliefs, methodology and conclusion). Some passages are completely unsubstantiated. Try and provide more references to support your ideas that are typically substantiated by only one source. Use COVID-19 instead of other word combinations throughout the manuscript. ‘France, Ireland, Japan, the Netherlands, and other countries’ – this selection is arbitrary, while ‘other countries’ makes your choice even more abstract. The same with ‘(Norway, Brazil, Chile, and others)’. – no evidence/sources is/are provided. ‘many authors have investigated the impact’ – needs substantiation. ‘In the 1980s, considerable debate arose on this issue, and a new wave on work-sharing considerations can be dated around the year 2000.’ – needs substantiation. Some paragraphs are too short. ‘The employment consequences of working hour reductions have been broadly discussed in the economic literature’, ‘In the recent and vast literature on pandemic measures, much attention has been devoted to working-from-home measures’ – sources are needed. What is the point of using numbers for in-text citations while also mentioning authors and years? ‘SARS-SARS-COVID-19’ – what does this mean? I don’t see any reason for inclusing this general idea: ‘The word pandemic derives from the Greek pandemos, a concept according to which it is believed that the entire world population is likely to be exposed to an infection, and potentially a part of the population will fall ill. The term would apply only to infectious diseases or pathological conditions.’ A Discussion section is missing. A more discursive, analytical conclusion is needed, that engages with the theoretical questions in scholarship raised earlier in the paper. There is some discussion of the limitations of the study however these are not considered in terms of the implications on the study findings.

The relationship between COVID-19-related teleworking performance and workplace functioning as regards working time reduction has not been covered, and thus such recent sources should be cited:

Nemțeanu, S.M., Dabija, D.C., Stanca, L. 2021. The Influence of Teleworking on Performance and Employee‘s Counterproductive Behaviour. Amfiteatru Economic, 23(58), pp.601-619. http://dx.doi.org/10.24818/EA/2021/58/601

Priem, R. (2021). “An Exploratory Study on the Impact of the COVID-19 Confinement on the Financial Behavior of Individual Investors,” Economics, Management, and Financial Markets 16(3): 9–40. doi: 10.22381/emfm16320211.

Zvarikova, K., Gajanova, L., and Higgins, M. (2022). “Adoption of Delivery Apps during the COVID-19 Crisis: Consumer Perceived Value, Behavioral Choices, and Purchase Intentions,” Journal of Self-Governance and Management Economics 10(1): 69–81. doi: 10.22381/jsme10120225.

Nemțeanu, M.S., Dinu, V., Dabija, D.C. 2021. Job Insecurity, job instability and job Satisfaction in the Context of COVID 19 Pandemic. Journal of Competitiveness, 13(2), pp.65-82. https://doi.org/10.7441/joc.2021.02.04

Author Response

Please see the attachment.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

This is a nicely executed and timely contribution with sound methodological approach on an important subject. Some comments that the authors would like to take into account are as follows:

1. Some of the discussion on the last three paragraphs of the introduction might better fit in the main text of the manuscript. For instance, the last paragraph with the discussion of the results should not be part of the introduction.

2. Figures 1 and 2 provide important and useful for the reader information. However, the authors should try to provide a better visual representation of the information in these figures.

3. A more through discussion of the methodological framework would be useful. Why it is necessary to employ both the Keynesian and the Neoclassical framework? What are the implications from the findings of this study for these frameworks?

Author Response

Please see the attachment.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Round 2

Reviewer 1 Report

This revised version can be published.