IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/ecolet/v222y2023ics0165176522004372.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The impact of the Covid-19 job retention support on employment

Author

Listed:
  • Meriküll, Jaanika
  • Paulus, Alari

Abstract

The paper studies the selection into the widespread job retention support that was provided during the Covid-19 pandemic and the employment effects of it, using firm-level administrative data for Estonia that cover the whole population of firms in 2019–2020. The endogeneity of the support is addressed by creating a control group from firms that were as severely hit as those that received the support and by using matching techniques. It is found that there was no selection of firms into the support by productivity once the sample is restricted to firms that experienced similar adverse conditions. The support had a positive effect on employment, as about one job in five that was supported by the scheme was saved and the unemployment rate would have been 2–4 percentage points higher in 2020 without the support.

Suggested Citation

  • Meriküll, Jaanika & Paulus, Alari, 2023. "The impact of the Covid-19 job retention support on employment," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 222(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecolet:v:222:y:2023:i:c:s0165176522004372
    DOI: 10.1016/j.econlet.2022.110963
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0165176522004372
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.econlet.2022.110963?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Pierre Cahuc & Francis Kramarz & Sandra Nevoux, 2021. "The Heterogeneous Impact of Short-Time Work: From Saved Jobs to Windfall Effects," Working Papers hal-03881632, HAL.
    2. Morikawa, Masayuki, 2021. "Productivity of firms using relief policies during the COVID-19 crisis," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 203(C).
    3. Daniel Kopp & Michael Siegenthaler, 2021. "Short-Time Work and Unemployment in and after the Great Recession [Does Employment Protection Inhibit Labor Market Flexibility? Lessons from Germany, France, and Belgium]," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 19(4), pages 2283-2321.
    4. Tito Boeri & Herbert Bruecker, 2011. "Short-time work benefits revisited: some lessons from the Great Recession [‘Reversed roles? Wage and employment effects of the current crisis’]," Economic Policy, CEPR, CESifo, Sciences Po;CES;MSH, vol. 26(68), pages 697-765.
    5. repec:oup:ecpoli:v:26:y:2011:i:68:p:697-765 is not listed on IDEAS
    6. Bennedsen, Morten & Larsen, Birthe & Schmutte, Ian & Scur, Daniela, 2020. "Preserving job matches during the COVID-19 pandemic: firm-level evidence on the role of government aid," GLO Discussion Paper Series 588, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    7. Kozeniauskas, Nicholas & Moreira, Pedro & Santos, Cezar, 2022. "On the cleansing effect of recessions and government policy: Evidence from Covid-19," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 144(C).
    8. Meriküll, Jaanika & Paulus, Alari, 2024. "Were jobs saved at the cost of productivity in the COVID-19 crisis?," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 161(C).
    9. Pierre Cahuc & Francis Kramarz & Sandra Nevoux, 2021. "The Heterogeneous Impact of Short-Time Work: From Saved Jobs to Windfall Effects," SciencePo Working papers hal-03602410, HAL.
    10. James Levinsohn & Amil Petrin, 2003. "Estimating Production Functions Using Inputs to Control for Unobservables," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 70(2), pages 317-341.
    11. Bighelli, Tommaso & Lalinsky, Tibor & Vanhala, Juuso, 2022. "Covid-19 pandemic, state aid and firm productivity," Bank of Finland Research Discussion Papers 1/2022, Bank of Finland.
    12. Harasztosi, Péter & Maurin, Laurent & Pál, Rozália & Revoltella, Debora & van der Wielen, Wouter, 2022. "Firm-level policy support during the crisis: So far, so good?," International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 171(C), pages 30-48.
    13. repec:zbw:bofrdp:2022_001 is not listed on IDEAS
    14. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/2ju03cb3kc9a3986bsibii70hd is not listed on IDEAS
    15. repec:hal:wpspec:info:hdl:2441/2ju03cb3kc9a3986bsibii70hd is not listed on IDEAS
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Stefan Jestl & Branimir Jovanović & Ambre Maucorps & Leon Podkaminer & Maryna Tverdostup, 2024. "Monthly Report No. 3/2024," wiiw Monthly Reports 2024-03, The Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies, wiiw.
    2. Lalinsky, Tibor & Anyfantaki, Sofia & Benkovskis, Konstantins & Bergeaud, Antonin & Bun, Maurice & Bunel, Simon & Colciago, Andrea & De Mulder, Jan & Lopez, Beatriz Gonzalez & Jarvis, Valerie & Krasno, 2024. "The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and policy support on productivity," Occasional Paper Series 341, European Central Bank.
    3. Meriküll, Jaanika & Paulus, Alari, 2024. "Were jobs saved at the cost of productivity in the COVID-19 crisis?," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 161(C).
    4. Stefan Jestl & Maryna Tverdostup, 2024. "The Path Through: Early COVID-19 Job Loss and Labour Market Trajectories in Austria," wiiw Working Papers 246, The Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies, wiiw.
    5. Lalinsky, Tibor & Meriküll, Jaanika & Lopez-Garcia, Paloma, 2024. "Productivity-enhancing reallocation during the Covid-19 pandemic," Working Paper Series 2947, European Central Bank.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Meriküll, Jaanika & Paulus, Alari, 2024. "Were jobs saved at the cost of productivity in the COVID-19 crisis?," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 161(C).
    2. Huneeus, Federico & Kaboski, Joseph & Larrain, Mauricio & Schmukler, Sergio L. & Vera, Mario, 2022. "The Distribution of Crisis Credit: Effects on Firm Indebtedness and Aggregate Risk," CEPR Discussion Papers 17061, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    3. Giulia Giupponi & Camille Landais & Alice Lapeyre, 2022. "Should We Insure Workers or Jobs during Recessions?," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 36(2), pages 29-54, Spring.
    4. Garcia-Clemente, Javier & Congregado, Emilio, 2022. "Effects of Short-time Work Schemes on firm survival during the Covid-19 crisis: insights from new Spanish data," MPRA Paper 113885, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    5. Bermudez, Natalia & Dejemeppe, Muriel & Tarullo, Giulia, 2023. "Theory and Empirics of Short-Time Work: A Review," GLO Discussion Paper Series 1348, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    6. Biancardi, Daniele & Lucifora, Claudio & Origo, Federica, 2022. "Short-time work and unionization," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    7. Julien Albertini & Xavier Fairise & Arthur Poirier & Anthony Terriau, 2022. "Short-Time Work Policies During the Covid-19 Pandemic," Annals of Economics and Statistics, GENES, issue 146, pages 123-172.
    8. Wilhelm, Stefan, 2023. "Efficiency of short-time work schemes and the role of monetary policy," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    9. Guerini, Mattia & Nesta, Lionel & Ragot, Xavier & Schiavo, Stefano, 2024. "Zombification of the economy? Assessing the effectiveness of French government support during COVID-19 lockdown," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 218(C), pages 263-280.
    10. Garcia-Clemente, Javier & Rubino, Nicola & Congregado, Emilio, 2022. "Evaluating the effects of short and medium-term temporary work reduction schemes: the case of Spain’s ERTEs during the COVID-19 outbreak," MPRA Paper 114504, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    11. Garcia-Clemente, J. & Rubino, N. & Congregado, E., 2023. "Reemployment premium effect of furlough programs: evaluating Spain's scheme during the COVID-19 crisis," Journal for Labour Market Research, Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany], vol. 57, pages 1-17.
    12. Julian Teichgräber & Simon Žužek & Jannik Hensel, 2022. "Optimal short-time work: screening for jobs at risk," ECON - Working Papers 402, Department of Economics - University of Zurich.
    13. Peltonen, Juho, 2023. "On the efficiency of labor markets with short-time work policies," MPRA Paper 119165, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    14. Nathan Vieira, 2022. "The role of the financial constraint in STW policy success during and after the Great Recession," French Stata Users' Group Meetings 2022 13, Stata Users Group.
    15. Peltonen, Juho, 2023. "Short-time work in search and matching models: Evidence from Germany during the Covid-19 crisis," MPRA Paper 119238, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    16. Werner Hölzl & Michael Böheim & Klaus Friesenbichler & Agnes Kügler & Thomas Leoni, 2021. "Staatliche Hilfsmaßnahmen für Unternehmen in der COVID-19-Krise. Eine begleitende Analyse operativer Aspekte und Unternehmenseinschätzungen," WIFO Studies, WIFO, number 66624, January.
    17. repec:hal:wpspec:info:hdl:2441/2ju03cb3kc9a3986bsibii70hd is not listed on IDEAS
    18. repec:spo:wpmain:info:hdl:2441/4urlmja10p80kqireg3ejlnogi is not listed on IDEAS
    19. Diaz, Antonia & Dolado, Juan J. & Jáñez, Álvaro & Wellschmied, Felix, 2025. "Labor reallocation effects of furlough schemes: Evidence from two recessions in Spain," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 171(C).
    20. Kochaniak, Katarzyna & Ulman, Paweł & Zajkowski, Robert, 2023. "Effectiveness of COVID-19 state aid for microenterprises in Poland," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 483-497.
    21. Boeri, Tito & Cahuc, Pierre, 2022. "Labor market insurance policies in the XXI century," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 118000, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    22. Cahuc, Pierre, 2024. "The Micro and Macro Economics of Short-Time Work," CEPR Discussion Papers 19429, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Covid-19; Job retention scheme; Employment;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D04 - Microeconomics - - General - - - Microeconomic Policy: Formulation; Implementation; Evaluation
    • D22 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Firm Behavior: Empirical Analysis
    • J68 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Public Policy

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:ecolet:v:222:y:2023:i:c:s0165176522004372. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/ecolet .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.