Fiscal Policy in the Age of COVID: Does it ‘Get in all of the Cracks?’
Pierre Olivier Gourinchas, Sebnem Kalemli-Ozcan, Veronika Penciakova, Nick Sander
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NBER Working Paper Series; Jackson Hole Symposium Proceedings
September
2021
Abstract
We study the effects of fiscal policy in response to the COVID-19 pandemic at the firm, sector, country and global level. First, we estimate the impact of COVID-19 and policy responses on small and medium sized enterprise (SME) business failures. We combine firm-level financial data from 50 sectors in 27 countries, a detailed I-O network, real-time data on lockdown policies and mobility patterns, and a rich model of firm behavior that allows for several dimensions of heterogeneity.