COVID-19 International Small Business Study

COVID-19 and Small Businesses

COVID-19 International Small Business Study on Information Frictions

This is a collaborative project to understand and help small businesses dealing with the COVID-19 crisis during the early part of 2020. Starting in March and throughout the first months of the pandemic, we surveyed small businesses in the US and 10 other countries across Latin America and the Caribbean. Each day we surveyed hundreds of small businesses and measured their beliefs regarding their economic outlook for their firm. We specifically ask them what they think government policy can do to help them. Over 40,000 small businesses participated in the survey over the period.

Visit the project website for more information. Information Frictions - Journal of Public Economics Aug (2020)

After documenting the significant lack of information about available government aid, our research team devised an intervention to help small businesses take advantage of the government aid available in their country. The intervention consisted in a phone call with information and guideance on what programs are available locally. A followup chatbot also containted personalized information about options available to small businesses in each country. This intervention was evaluated through a randomized control trial simultaneously in five different countries. Results coming soon!