Effects of COVID-19 related government response stringency and support policies: Evidence from European firms.

In this paper we employ survey information on more than 10,000 Southern and Eastern European firms to assess the effects of the COVID-19 related lockdown and government support policies on the business operations of enterprises. Our findings reveal considerable size- and sector-related heterogeneity, with small firms, and firms such as hotels and restaurants operating in the facilities sector reporting the largest losses in terms of sales when governments increase the strictness of confinement measures. Fixed effects regression estimates suggest that a complete lockdown results in an average year-on-year sales growth that is approximately 63 percentage points lower than it would be without any curtailment measures. The magnitude of the coefficient on year-on-year sales change for a complete lockdown is 14 percentage points higher for small compared to large enterprises. Furthermore, our results suggest that state aid in the form of deferral of payments or wage subsidies are associated with firms' firms' labor market and financial outcomes in times of crisis. For instance, deferrals of payments are linked to between 0.7 and 1.5 fewer layoffs per firm in the surveyed enterprises compared to other types of support.

Effects of COVID-19 related government response stringency and support policies: Evidence from European firms☆

In this paper we employ survey information on more than 10,000 Southern and Eastern European firms to assess the effects of the COVID-19 related lockdown and government support policies on the business operations of enterprises. Our findings reveal considerable size- and sector-related heterogeneity, with small firms, and firms such as hotels and restaurants operating in the facilities sector reporting the largest losses in terms of sales when governments increase the strictness of confinement measures. Fixed effects regression estimates suggest that a complete lockdown results in an average year-on-year sales growth that is approximately 63 percentage points lower than it would be without any curtailment measures. The magnitude of the coefficient on year-on-year sales change for a complete lockdown is 14 percentage points higher for small compared to large enterprises. Furthermore, our results suggest that state aid in the form of deferral of payments or wage subsidies are associated with firms‘ labor market and financial outcomes in times of crisis. For instance, deferrals of payments are linked to between 0.7 and 1.5 fewer layoffs per firm in the surveyed enterprises compared to other types of support.

Electricity Use as a Real-Time Indicator of the Economic Burden of the COVID-19-Related Lockdown: Evidence from Switzerland

We employ hourly electricity load data for Switzerland as a real-time indicator of the economic effects of the lockdown following the spread of SARS-CoV-2. Our findings reveal that following the drastic lockdown, overall electricity use decreased by 4.6%, with a reduction of even 14.3% in the Canton of Ticino where the number of confirmed cases per capita was one of the highest in Switzerland and also stricter measures such as closures of construction sites and industrial companies were implemented on top of federal regulations. Looking at working days only, we estimate a Swiss-wide decrease in electricity consumption of 7.4%. Assuming industry, services, transport, and agriculture account for 67% of electricity demand, the 4.6% decrease in electricity use implies an almost 7% output reduction in these sectors. In addition, the reduced electricity imports and the change in the generation mix of neighbouring countries, also translates into reduced CO2 emissions related to these imports. (JEL codes: C53, Q4, C3)