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When the rainy day is the worst hurricane ever: the effects of governmental policies on SMEs during COVID-19

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  • Yacine Belghitar

    (Cranfield University)

  • Andrea Moro

    (Cranfield University)

  • Nemanja Radić

    (Cranfield University)

Abstract

We investigate the impact of COVID-19 on 42,401 UK SMEs and how government intervention affects their capability to survive the pandemic. The results show that, without governmental mitigation schemes, 59% of UK SMEs report negative earnings and that their residual life is reduced from 164 to 139 days. The analysis shows that government support scheme reduces the number of SMEs with negative earnings to 49% and allows extending the residual life for SMEs with negative earnings to 194 days. In addition, the support scheme reduces the number of jobs at risk in our sample by around 20%. However, our results suggest that weaker firms benefit more than strong ones. Besides, industries that are worst hit by COVID-19 are not those that benefit most from the government support scheme. We ascribe this result to the fact that the schemes do not discriminate between those firms that deserve support and those that do not deserve it.

Suggested Citation

  • Yacine Belghitar & Andrea Moro & Nemanja Radić, 2022. "When the rainy day is the worst hurricane ever: the effects of governmental policies on SMEs during COVID-19," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 58(2), pages 943-961, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:sbusec:v:58:y:2022:i:2:d:10.1007_s11187-021-00510-8
    DOI: 10.1007/s11187-021-00510-8
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    2. Block, Joern & Kritikos, Alexander S. & Priem, Maximilian & Stiel, Caroline, 2022. "Emergency-aid for self-employed in the Covid-19 pandemic: A flash in the pan?," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 93(C).
    3. Andrew Chan & Francis Cheng & Shuk-Ling Cheng, 2023. "Post-Crisis Sustainable Performance of Manufacturing SMEs: The Roles of Positive Orientation, Financial Slack, and External Networks," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(17), pages 1-18, August.
    4. Bertschek, Irene & Block, Jörn & Kritikos, Alexander S. & Stiel, Caroline, 2022. "German Financial State Aid during COVID-19 Pandemic: Higher Impact among Digitalized Self-Employed," IZA Discussion Papers 15608, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    5. Grimmer, Louise, 2022. "Lessons from the COVID19 pandemic: The case of retail and consumer service firms," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 68(C).
    6. Cameron J. Borgholthaus & Joshua V. White & Erik Markin & Vishal K. Gupta, 2023. "Venture creation in the aftermath of COVID-19: The impact of US governor party affiliation and discretion," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 61(2), pages 655-674, August.
    7. Radeef Chundakkadan & Subash Sasidharan & Ketan Reddy, 2023. "The Role of Export Incentives and Bank Credit on the Export Survival of Firms in India During COVID-19," Working Papers DP-2023-12, Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia (ERIA).
    8. Lily Davies & Mark Kattenberg & Benedikt Vogt, 2023. "Predicting Firm Exits with Machine Learning: Implications for Selection into COVID-19 Support and Productivity Growth," CPB Discussion Paper 444, CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis.

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