IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wly/jintdv/v37y2025i8p1601-1621.html

The Wage Effect of the COVID‐19 Pandemic by Company Size: Evidence From Thailand

Author

Listed:
  • Kazunobu Hayakawa
  • Sasatra Sudsawasd

Abstract

Large enterprises tend to perform better than small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) in normal times. However, this general principle may not hold true during periods of instability, such as large‐scale pandemics. While large companies may be able to implement a work‐from‐home system more flexibly, SMEs may require government support. Against this backdrop, we empirically investigate the effect of the COVID‐19 pandemic on the labour market, especially wages, in Thailand. By using the individual‐level quarterly data in Thailand from 2019 to 2022, we examine the differences in the wage impact of the COVID‐19 pandemic according to company size. Some estimations show a decrease in the wage gap between small firms (10–49 employees) and larger firms. At least, we do not find a robust result indicating further expansion of the wage gap by company size.

Suggested Citation

  • Kazunobu Hayakawa & Sasatra Sudsawasd, 2025. "The Wage Effect of the COVID‐19 Pandemic by Company Size: Evidence From Thailand," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 37(8), pages 1601-1621, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:jintdv:v:37:y:2025:i:8:p:1601-1621
    DOI: 10.1002/jid.70025
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1002/jid.70025
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1002/jid.70025?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Vasco M Carvalho & Makoto Nirei & Yukiko U Saito & Alireza Tahbaz-Salehi, 2021. "Supply Chain Disruptions: Evidence from the Great East Japan Earthquake," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 136(2), pages 1255-1321.
    2. Miguel Cardoso & Brandon Malloy, 2021. "Impact of the First Wave of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Trade between Canada and the United States," Canadian Public Policy, University of Toronto Press, vol. 47(4), pages 554-572, December.
    3. Henning Holgersen & Zhiyang Jia & Simen Svenkerud, 2021. "Who and how many can work from home? Evidence from task descriptions," Journal for Labour Market Research, Springer;Institute for Employment Research/ Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), vol. 55(1), pages 1-13, December.
    4. Louis-Philippe Beland & Abel Brodeur & Taylor Wright, 2023. "The short-term economic consequences of COVID-19: Exposure to disease, remote work and government response," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 18(3), pages 1-32, March.
    5. Sasiwimon Warunsiri Paweenawat & Lusi Liao, 2024. "Who Suffers the Most During the COVID‐19 Pandemic? Evidence From Thailand," The Developing Economies, Institute of Developing Economies, vol. 62(3), pages 238-268, September.
    6. Teresa C Fort & John Haltiwanger & Ron S Jarmin & Javier Miranda, 2013. "How Firms Respond to Business Cycles: The Role of Firm Age and Firm Size," IMF Economic Review, Palgrave Macmillan;International Monetary Fund, vol. 61(3), pages 520-559, August.
    7. Upalat Korwatanasakul, 2021. "Determinants, Wage Inequality, and Occupational Risk Exposure of Informal Workers: A Comprehensive Analysis With the Case Study of Thailand," PIER Discussion Papers 160, Puey Ungphakorn Institute for Economic Research.
    8. Huayu Shen & Mengyao Fu & Hongyu Pan & Zhongfu Yu & Yongquan Chen, 2020. "The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Firm Performance," Emerging Markets Finance and Trade, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 56(10), pages 2213-2230, August.
    9. Juarez, Laura & Villaseñor, Paula, 2024. "Effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on the labor market outcomes of women with children in Mexico," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 122534, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    10. Alessandra Casarico & Salvatore Lattanzio, 2022. "The heterogeneous effects of COVID-19 on labor market flows: evidence from administrative data," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 20(3), pages 537-558, September.
    11. Huayu Shen & Mengyao Fu & Hongyu Pan & Zhongfu Yu & Yongquan Chen, 2020. "The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Firm Performance," Emerging Markets Finance and Trade, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 56(10), pages 2213-2230, August.
    12. Nalitra Thaiprasert & Supanika Leurcharusmee & Peerapat Jatukannyaprateep & Jirakom Sirisrisakulchai, 2020. "Determinants of Labor Force Participation and Wages in Thailand: What is the Role of the Informal Sector?," Asian Economic Journal, East Asian Economic Association, vol. 34(3), pages 301-326, September.
    13. Sharpe, Steven A, 1994. "Financial Market Imperfections, Firm Leverage, and the Cyclicality of Employment," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 84(4), pages 1060-1074, September.
    14. Nicholas Bloom & Robert S. Fletcher & Ethan Yeh, 2021. "The Impact of COVID-19 on US Firms," NBER Working Papers 28314, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    15. repec:iab:iabjlr:v:55:p:art.04 is not listed on IDEAS
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Chen, Yutong & Debnath, Sisir & Sekhri, Sheetal & Sekhri, Vishal, 2023. "The impact of Covid-19 containment lockdowns on MSMEs in India and resilience of exporting firms," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 210(C), pages 320-341.
    2. Caselli, Mauro & Fracasso, Andrea & Traverso, Silvio, 2021. "Robots and risk of COVID-19 workplace contagion: Evidence from Italy," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 173(C).
    3. Ardiyono, Sulistiyo K., 2022. "Covid-19 pandemic, firms’ responses, and unemployment in the ASEAN-5," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 337-372.
    4. Oznur Ozdamar & Eleftherios Giovanis & Sahizer Samuk, 2020. "State business relations and the dynamics of job flows in Egypt and Turkey," Eurasian Business Review, Springer;Eurasia Business and Economics Society, vol. 10(4), pages 519-558, December.
    5. Yousaf, Imran & Beljid, Makram & Chaibi, Anis & Ajlouni, Ahmed AL, 2022. "Do volatility spillover and hedging among GCC stock markets and global factors vary from normal to turbulent periods? Evidence from the global financial crisis and Covid-19 pandemic crisis," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 73(C).
    6. Masayuki Morikawa, 2023. "Productivity dynamics of remote work during the COVID‐19 pandemic," Industrial Relations: A Journal of Economy and Society, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 62(3), pages 317-331, July.
    7. Emek Basker & Javier Miranda, 2014. "Taken by Storm: Business Financing, Survival, and Contagion in the Aftermath of Hurricane Katrina," Working Papers 1406, Department of Economics, University of Missouri, revised 23 Oct 2014.
    8. Osmani RUFI & Kamberi EGZON, 2022. "The Profitability Analysis of the Best Companies Listed on the North Macedonian Stock Exchange (MBI10) during the Pandemic Crisis Covid-19," Economics and Applied Informatics, "Dunarea de Jos" University of Galati, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, issue 1, pages 35-42.
    9. Narayan, Paresh Kumar & Devpura, Neluka & Wang, Hua, 2020. "Japanese currency and stock market—What happened during the COVID-19 pandemic?," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 68(C), pages 191-198.
    10. repec:bjc:journl:v:9:y:2022:i:1:p:86-94 is not listed on IDEAS
    11. Fasano, Francesco & Javier Sánchez-Vidal, F. & La Rocca, Maurizio, 2022. "The role of government policies for Italian firms during the COVID-19 crisis," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 50(C).
    12. Mauro Caselli & Andrea Fracasso & Sergio Scicchitano, 2022. "From the lockdown to the new normal: individual mobility and local labor market characteristics following the COVID-19 pandemic in Italy," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 35(4), pages 1517-1550, October.
    13. Huang, Zhi-xiong & Yang, Xiandong, 2021. "Carbon emissions and firm innovation," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 503-513.
    14. Tong, Yuan & Wan, Ning & Dai, Xingyu & Bi, Xiaoyi & Wang, Qunwei, 2022. "China's energy stock market jumps: To what extent does the COVID-19 pandemic play a part?," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 109(C).
    15. Shabir, Mohsin & Jiang, Ping & Wang, Wenhao & Işık, Özcan, 2023. "COVID-19 pandemic impact on banking sector: A cross-country analysis," Journal of Multinational Financial Management, Elsevier, vol. 67(C).
    16. Shen, Huayu & Hou, Fei, 2021. "Trade policy uncertainty and corporate innovation evidence from Chinese listed firms in new energy vehicle industry," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 97(C).
    17. Padhan, Rakesh & Prabheesh, K.P., 2021. "The economics of COVID-19 pandemic: A survey," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 220-237.
    18. Edyta Rutkowska-Tomaszewska & Aleksandra Łakomiak & Marta Stanisławska, 2021. "The Economic Effect of the Pandemic in the Energy Sector on the Example of Listed Energy Companies," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(1), pages 1-28, December.
    19. Lin, Hang & Zhang, Zhengjun, 2022. "Extreme co-movements between infectious disease events and crude oil futures prices: From extreme value analysis perspective," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 110(C).
    20. Sass, Magdolna & Gál, Zoltán & S. Gubik, Andrea & Szunomár, Ágnes & Túry, Gábor, 2022. "A koronavírus-járvány kezelése a külföldi tulajdonú magyarországi vállalatoknál [The effects and handling of the Covid-19 pandemic by foreign-owned firms in Hungary]," Közgazdasági Szemle (Economic Review - monthly of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences), Közgazdasági Szemle Alapítvány (Economic Review Foundation), vol. 0(6), pages 758-780.
    21. Henry Hyatt & Erika McEntarfer & John Haltiwanger, 2014. "Cyclical Reallocation of Workers Across Large and Small Employers," 2014 Meeting Papers 735, Society for Economic Dynamics.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • I14 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Health and Inequality
    • R11 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - General Regional Economics - - - Regional Economic Activity: Growth, Development, Environmental Issues, and Changes

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:wly:jintdv:v:37:y:2025:i:8:p:1601-1621. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/5102/home .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.