IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ris/adbiwp/1305.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

COVID-19, Fintech, and the Recovery of Micro, Small, and Medium-sized Enterprises: Evidence from Bangladesh

Author

Listed:
  • Hossain, Monzur

    (Asian Development Bank Institute)

  • Chowdhury, Tahreen Tahrima

    (Asian Development Bank Institute)

Abstract

We assess the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) and the role of fintech, in particular, mobile financial services (MFS), in their recovery from COVID-induced losses. We use data from a survey of 216 MSMEs from Bangladesh Small and Cottage Industries Corporation industrial estates in Bangladesh during January to March 2021. Our results suggest that firms have been recovering gradually after the withdrawal from lockdown in June 2020. So far, 80% of production of the firms compared with pre-COVID levels had recovered by the end of December 2020. We use instrumental variable regression to assess the impact of the use of MFS on firms’ production, sales, and profit for three periods: lockdown (March–May 2020), limited lockdown (June–September 2020) and the reopening period (October–December 2020). We find significant and positive impact from the use of MFS on the production, sales, and profit of firms during this pandemic. The results indicate that the use of digital finance facilitates firms’ production through ensuring a stable supply of raw materials and sales that have prompted them to recover faster. However, the concern is that only about 31% of our sample firms use MFS for their businesses and an even lower proportion of firms are accustomed to using an online platform. Therefore, more incentives and supportive policies are needed to motivate MSMEs to use digital finance and online platforms to stay active in operations, particularly during the pandemic.

Suggested Citation

  • Hossain, Monzur & Chowdhury, Tahreen Tahrima, 2022. "COVID-19, Fintech, and the Recovery of Micro, Small, and Medium-sized Enterprises: Evidence from Bangladesh," ADBI Working Papers 1305, Asian Development Bank Institute.
    • Handle: RePEc:ris:adbiwp:1305
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.adb.org/sites/default/files/publication/767786/adbi-wp1305.pdf
    File Function: Full text
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Monzur Hossain, 2021. "State-Owned Enterprises and Cluster-Based Industrialization: Evidence from Bangladesh," ADB Institute Series on Development Economics, in: Farhad Taghizadeh-Hesary & Naoyuki Yoshino & Chul Ju Kim & Kunmin Kim (ed.), Reforming State-Owned Enterprises in Asia, chapter 0, pages 255-274, Springer.
    2. Farhad Taghizadeh-Hesary & Naoyuki Yoshino & Chul Ju Kim & Kunmin Kim (ed.), 2021. "Reforming State-Owned Enterprises in Asia," ADB Institute Series on Development Economics, Springer, number 978-981-15-8574-6, december.
    3. Munyegera, Ggombe Kasim & Matsumoto, Tomoya, 2016. "Mobile Money, Remittances, and Household Welfare: Panel Evidence from Rural Uganda," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 79(C), pages 127-137.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Li, Songran & Hu, Kaiwen & Kang, Xueqing, 2024. "Impact of financial technologies, digitalization, and natural resources on environmental degradation in G-20 countries: Does human resources matter?," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 93(C).
    2. Selim Raihan & FNU Jonaed & Md. Tuhin Ahmed, 2024. "Impact of Stimulus Packages on Business Recovery During the COVID-19 Pandemic in Bangladesh," Journal of South Asian Development, , vol. 19(2), pages 169-198, August.

    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. N'dri, Lasme Mathieu & Kakinaka, Makoto, 2020. "Financial inclusion, mobile money, and individual welfare: The case of Burkina Faso," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 44(3).
    2. Johnen, Constantin & Musshoff, Oliver & Parlasca, Martin C., 2022. "Mobile Money Adoption in Kenya: The Role of Mobile Money Agents," 2022 Annual Meeting, July 31-August 2, Anaheim, California 322294, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    3. Xinhui Wu & Luan Chen & Li Ma & Liru Cai & Xun Li, 2023. "Return migration, rural household investment decision, and poverty alleviation: Evidence from rural Guangdong, China," Growth and Change, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 54(1), pages 304-325, March.
    4. Gallego-Losada, María-Jesús & Montero-Navarro, Antonio & García-Abajo, Elisa & Gallego-Losada, Rocío, 2023. "Digital financial inclusion. Visualizing the academic literature," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    5. Aurazo, Jose & Gasmi, Farid, 2024. "Digital payment systems in emerging economies: Lessons from Kenya, India, Brazil, and Peru," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 69(C).
    6. Luc Jacolin & Joseph Keneck Massil & Alphonse Noah, 2021. "Informal sector and mobile financial services in emerging and developing countries: Does financial innovation matter?," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 44(9), pages 2703-2737, September.
    7. Sekabira, Haruna & Qaim, Matin, 2017. "Can mobile phones improve gender equality and nutrition? Panel data evidence from farm households in Uganda," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 95-103.
    8. Yiping Huang & Xue Wang & Xun Wang, 2020. "Mobile Payment in China: Practice and Its Effects," Asian Economic Papers, MIT Press, vol. 19(3), pages 1-18, Fall.
    9. Steinert, Janina I. & Zenker, Juliane & Filipiak, Ute & Movsisyan, Ani & Cluver, Lucie D. & Shenderovich, Yulia, 2018. "Do saving promotion interventions increase household savings, consumption, and investments in Sub-Saharan Africa? A systematic review and meta-analysis," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 104(C), pages 238-256.
    10. Isaac Appiah-Otoo & Na Song, 2021. "The Impact of Fintech on Poverty Reduction: Evidence from China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(9), pages 1-13, May.
    11. Wantchekon, Leonard & Riaz, Zara, 2019. "Mobile technology and food access," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 117(C), pages 344-356.
    12. Raksmey, Uch & Lin, Ching-Yang & Kakinaka, Makoto, 2022. "Macroprudential regulation and financial inclusion: Any difference between developed and developing countries?," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 63(C).
    13. Ablam Estel Apeti & Jean-Louis Combes & Eyah Denise Edoh, 2023. "Entrepreneurship in developing countries: can mobile money play a role?," Working Papers hal-04081304, HAL.
    14. Hisahiro Naito & Askar Ismailov & Albert Benson Kimaro, 2021. "The Effect of Mobile Money on Borrowing and Saving: Evidence from Tanzania," Tsukuba Economics Working Papers 2021-002, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Tsukuba.
    15. Nasreen Nawaz, 2020. "Converting remittances to investment: a dynamic optimal policy," Journal of Economics and Finance, Springer;Academy of Economics and Finance, vol. 44(1), pages 140-160, January.
    16. Simplice A. Asongu & Nicholas M. Odhiambo, 2020. "Remittances, the diffusion of information and industrialisation in Africa," Contemporary Social Science, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 15(1), pages 98-117, January.
    17. Asif Islam & Silvia Muzi & Jorge Luis Rodriguez Meza, 2018. "Does mobile money use increase firms’ investment? Evidence from Enterprise Surveys in Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 51(3), pages 687-708, October.
    18. Jean N. Lee & Jonathan Morduch & Saravana Ravindran & Abu Shonchoy & Hassan Zaman, 2021. "Poverty and Migration in the Digital Age: Experimental Evidence on Mobile Banking in Bangladesh," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 13(1), pages 38-71, January.
    19. Apeti, Ablam Estel & Edoh, Eyah Denise, 2023. "Tax revenue and mobile money in developing countries," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 161(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    fintech; MSMEs; Bangladesh Small and Cottage Industries Corporation Estates; BSCIC; COVID-19; firm recovery; Bangladesh;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D20 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - General
    • D22 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Firm Behavior: Empirical Analysis
    • G10 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - General (includes Measurement and Data)
    • G20 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - General

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:ris:adbiwp:1305. 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: ADB Institute (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/adbinjp.html .

    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.