COVID-19 wage subsidies and SME performance: evidence from Russia
Dmitrij Skugarevskij, Ruslan Kuchakov
Recent issue of Applied Economics Letters includes a research article by Ruslan Kuchakov и Dmitriy Skougarevskiy on the effects of wage subsidied by Russian central government on employment and profit margins.
Abstract:
We study the effects of COVID-19 wage subsidies offered to Russian SMEs. This programme disbursed over USD400m of monthly grants to cover wage bills to firms in COVID-affected industries under the condition of retaining employment in 2020. In a triple difference design we find no effects of such grants on survival, employment, or profitability of firms in the affected industries by early 2021.
