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This paper explores the impact of COVID-19 on shopping behavior in two neighboring developing economies: Bangladesh and India. While the previous studies investigating the impact of COVID-19 on shopping behavior have relied on Revealed Preference (RP) data, this paper combines RP and Stated Preference (SP) data to develop joint RP-SP discrete choice models. This makes it possible to quantify the relative impact of the situational contexts on the choice of shopping modes of households and to capture the associated heterogeneity arising from the characteristics of the households. Further, comparison of the data and the estimated model parameters of the two countries with substantial socio-cultural similarities provide insights about how differences in the state of e-commerce can lead to different levels of inertia in continuing the pre-COVID behavior. The results will be useful to planners and policymakers for predicting the shopping modes in different future scenarios and formulating effective restriction measures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, researchers and policymakers began to pay attention to the expected number of out-of-school children and emerging learning crises in developed countries, where self-isolation, social distancing, and access to education through technology are possible on a wide scale. Within the region of South Asia, and among the impoverished communities of Bangladesh, India and Pakistan, this situation is quite the opposite, where millions of people still live below the poverty line, and technology-driven education is not yet a privilege. Despite the utmost commitment to provide free and quality education to all, the three nation-states prioritised healthcare over other businesses, delaying the policy response to the educational and learning crises. In this paper, the authors examine the policy responses from each country and conclude that inequities are not being adequately addressed, and that remote learning initiatives are not producing comparable results to prepandemic learning. The authors suggest that to make education accessible, equitable, and to improve student learning outcomes, the countries need to invest in school leader capacity building, and strengthening of the technology infrastructure and resources [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]