UNU-WIDER employs a fair use policy for reasonable reproduction of UNU-WIDER copyrighted content-such as the reproduction of a table or a figure, and/or text not exceeding 400 words-with due acknowledgement of the original source, without requiring explicit permission from the copyright holder.

Noise, hearing loss, and electronic signal distortion, which are common problems in military environments, can impair speech intelligibility and thereby jeopardize mission success. The current study investigated the impact that impaired communication has on operational performance in a command and control environment by parametrically degrading speech intelligibility in a simulated shipborne Combat Information Center. Experienced U.S. Navy personnel served as the study participants and were required to monitor information from multiple sources and respond appropriately to communications initiated by investigators playing the roles of other personnel involved in a realistic Naval scenario. In each block of the scenario, an adaptive intelligibility modification system employing automatic gain control was used to adjust the signal-to-noise ratio to achieve one of four speech intelligibility levels on a Modified Rhyme Test: No Loss, 80%, 60%, or 40%. Objective and subjective measures of operational performance suggested that performance systematically degraded with decreasing speech intelligibility, with the largest drop occurring between 80% and 60%. These results confirm the importance of noise reduction, good communication design, and effective hearing conservation programs to maximize the operational effectiveness of military personnel.

This study assesses the impact of COVID‐19 on household consumption poverty. To predict changes in income and the associated effects on poverty, we rely on existing estimated macroeconomic impacts. We assume two main impact channels: direct income/wage and employment losses. Our simulations suggest that consumption decreased by 7.1%–14.4% and that poverty increased by 4.3–9.9 percentage points in 2020. This points to a reversal of the positive poverty reduction trend observed in previous years. Poverty most certainly increased in the pre‐COVID period due to other shocks, so Mozambique finds itself in a deepening struggle against poverty.

UNU-WIDER employs a fair use policy for reasonable reproduction of UNU-WIDER copyrighted content-such as the reproduction of a table or a figure, and/or text not exceeding 400 words-with due acknowledgement of the original source, without requiring explicit permission from the copyright holder.

This study assesses the economic costs of COVID‐19 and the state of emergency implemented by the Government of Mozambique. We use a social accounting matrix multiplier analysis to estimate the effects of the pandemic on the economy. Our simulations suggest that the Mozambican economy lost 3.6 percentage points of GDP growth in 2020 and that employment was 1.9 percentage points down. These losses were primarily driven by export shocks, the most heavily affected sectors being trade and accommodation and mining. Mozambique faces a critical challenge of how to promote economic diversification and reduce vulnerability to foreign shocks.