Covid-19, Fiscal Policies, and Small-and-Medium-Sized Firm Survival: Evidence From the Cross-Country Matching Analysis

OBJECTIVE: The present study examines the effect of fiscal policies on firm survival for small-and-medium-sized enterprises in the cross-country level firm-level data. RESEARCH DESIGN: A propensity score matching analysis is utilised for the post-COVID-19 period firms by using the World Bank Enterprise Follow-up Surveys for the pandemic period. Small-and-medium-sized enterprises are essential to the economy; firm failures can increase in a pandemic. RESULTS: The obtained findings show that the effect of fiscal policies has an essential effect on small-and-medium-sized enterprises survival in the COVID-19 pandemic period by using a cross-country heterogenous firm-level sample. CONCLUSIONS: In this context, the present study shed new light on the link between COVID-19-related fiscal policies and small-and-medium-sized firm survival in developing countries.