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The Impacts of Covid-19 on Racial Inequality in Business Earnings

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  • Robert Fairlie
  • Robert W. Fairlie

Abstract

Many small businesses closed in the pandemic, but were economic losses disproportionately felt by businesses owned by people of color? This paper provides the first study of the impacts of COVID-19 on racial inequality in business earnings. Pandemic-induced losses to business earnings in 2020 were 16-19 percent for all business owners. Racial inequality increased in the pandemic: Black business owners experienced larger negative impacts on business earnings of 12-14 percent relative to white business owners. Regression estimates for Latinx and Asian business owners reveal negative point estimates but the estimates are not statistically significant. Using Blinder-Oaxaca decompositions and a new pandemic-focused decomposition technique, I find that the industry concentrations of Black, Latinx, and Asian business owners placed each of these groups at a higher risk of experiencing disproportionate business earnings losses in the pandemic. Higher education levels among Asian business owners helped insulate them from larger losses from COVID-19. In the following year of economic recovery, 2021, business earnings rebounded strongly for all groups except for Asian business owners who experienced large relative losses (which were partly due to industry concentrations). State-level variation in policies and disease spread does not explain racial differences in business earnings losses or rebounds.

Suggested Citation

  • Robert Fairlie & Robert W. Fairlie, 2023. "The Impacts of Covid-19 on Racial Inequality in Business Earnings," CESifo Working Paper Series 10634, CESifo.
    • Handle: RePEc:ces:ceswps:_10634
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    File URL: https://www.cesifo.org/DocDL/cesifo1_wp10634.pdf
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Robert W. Fairlie & Alicia M. Robb, 2008. "Race and Entrepreneurial Success: Black-, Asian-, and White-Owned Businesses in the United States," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 026206281x, December.
    2. Aaron K. Chatterji & Kenneth Y. Chay & Robert W. Fairlie, 2014. "The Impact of City Contracting Set-Asides on Black Self-Employment and Employment," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 32(3), pages 507-561.
    3. Couch, Kenneth A. & Fairlie, Robert W. & Xu, Huanan, 2020. "Early evidence of the impacts of COVID-19 on minority unemployment," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 192(C).
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    6. Robert W. Fairlie & Frank M. Fossen, 2021. "Sales Losses in the First Quarter of the COVID-19 Pandemic: Evidence from California Administrative Data," NBER Working Papers 28414, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    7. Robert W. Fairlie & Alicia M. Robb, 2007. "Why Are Black-Owned Businesses Less Successful than White-Owned Businesses? The Role of Families, Inheritances, and Business Human Capital," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 25(2), pages 289-323.
    8. Fairlie, Robert W, 1999. "The Absence of the African-American Owned Business: An Analysis of the Dynamics of Self-Employment," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 17(1), pages 80-108, January.
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    13. Robert Fairlie & Frank M. Fossen, 2022. "The 2021 Paycheck Protection Program Reboot: Loan Disbursement to Employer and Nonemployer Businesses in Minority Communities," AEA Papers and Proceedings, American Economic Association, vol. 112, pages 287-291, May.
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    entrepreneurship; Covid; racial inequality; business earnings; pandemic;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • L26 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior - - - Entrepreneurship
    • J15 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Minorities, Races, Indigenous Peoples, and Immigrants; Non-labor Discrimination

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