COVID-19 wage subsidies and SME performance: evidence from Russia

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.

KEYWORDS:

• COVID-19
• wage subsidies
• active labour market programmes

JEL CLASSIFICATION:

• H25
• J2
• J38

Disclosure statement

The Authors declare that there is no conflict of interest.

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.