Abstract
A variety of public economic policy measures have been designed and implemented in an effort to enable SMEs to limit damages resulting from the adverse sanitary and economic shocks associated with COVID-19. The originality of our study is to propose a rating of the various economic policy measures, the rating being expressed by SMEs owners conditional to their business expectations. In so doing, our contribution is to highlight the policy measures to be implemented in order to support resilient and ambitious ventures with the most positive prospects, which are likely to contribute the most to economic recovery. We exploit an original and rich dataset derived from a survey conducted in May 2020 among a representative sample of more than 2100 Belgian (Walloon) SMEs. The Belgian experience is remarkable because the wide variety of measures it undertook echoes many of the measures taken by OECD countries. Our results suggest that the respondents have an overall positive evaluation of the various economic and social policy measures implemented by the Belgian authorities. More importantly, the rating by SME owners with the most favorable expectations are, however, significantly different than their counterpart. Measures helping firms to maintain their workforce are particularly highly rated by firms with the best prospects. It also appears that those firms prefer short-term and transitory measures.
Highlights
The sudden breakthrough of the coronavirus pandemic significantly disrupted the global economy
Our results suggest that the respondents have an overall positive evaluation of the various economic and social policy measures implemented by the Belgian authorities
In this study, we are interested in the rating by SMEs owners of various economic policy measures in response to the COVID-19 crisis, their rating being connected to their business prospects
Summary
The sudden breakthrough of the coronavirus pandemic significantly disrupted the global economy. The originality of the present contribution comes from the fact that, despite the huge interest of economists in the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, very little attention has been given to the perception and rating of the supportive measures by SME owners and the self-employed. We consider our study as a rating evaluation, by the targeted recipients, of an ongoing economic policy in its early phase [12] To serve this purpose, we use their rating of the various policy measures designed and implemented to support them in limiting the damage of the crisis to their businesses. How do SME owners and self-employed people rate policy measures taken to respond to the COVID-19 crisis? We present the policy measures active at the time of the survey to support business activities during the COVID-19 crisis. In an environment where everything stopped abruptly, Belgian authorities reacted quickly and vigorously to support both households and businesses, with a view to softening the harmful effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the country’s economy
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