COVID-19 financial support to small businesses in Switzerland: evaluation and outlook

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Version: Final published version
License: CC BY 4.0
Serval ID
serval:BIB_6D6C456164CA
Type
Article: article from journal or magazin.
Collection
Publications
Institution
Title
COVID-19 financial support to small businesses in Switzerland: evaluation and outlook
Journal
Swiss Journal of Economics and Statistics
Author(s)
Brülhart Marius, Lalive Rafael, Lehmann Tobias, Siegenthaler Michael
ISSN
2235-6282
Publication state
Published
Issued date
12/2020
Peer-reviewed
Oui
Volume
156
Number
1
Language
english
Abstract
We analyse small businesses’ recourse to public support measures during the COVID-19 crisis using a survey of 1,011 self-employed workers and small business owners in Switzerland. We find that “objective” measures of lockdown affectedness and economic structure explain fairly well how businesses availed of support measures to cover labour costs. Recourse to government-backed corona loans, however, appears to be driven to a larger extent by behavioural idiosyncrasies across firms. Specifically, previously indebted businesses took out corona loans more readily than those who had been debt-free before the pandemic. Since uptake is not well in line with firm fundamentals, we propose making loan repayments contingent on future profits. This will more effectively target and sustain businesses that are in trouble today but would be viable in the absence of COVID-19.
Keywords
Economics and Econometrics, Statistics and Probability
Pubmed
Open Access
Yes
Create date
30/11/2021 19:56
Last modification date
21/11/2022 9:24
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