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The Impact of COVID-19 on Small Businesses in the US: A Longitudinal Study from a Regional Perspective

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  • Wei Kang
  • Qingfang Wang

Abstract

Small businesses have suffered disproportionately from the COVID-19 pandemic. We use near-real-time weekly data from the Small Business Pulse Survey (April 26, 2020 - June 17, 2021) to examine the constantly changing impact of COVID-19 on small businesses across the United States. A set of multilevel models for change are adopted to model the trajectories of the various kinds of impact as perceived by business owners (subjective) and those recorded for business operations (objective), providing insights into regional resilience from a small business perspective. The findings reveal spatially uneven and varied trajectories in both the subjectively and the objectively assessed impact of COVID-19 across the U.S., and the different responses to the pandemic shock can be explained by evolving health situations and public policies, as well as by the economic structure and degree of socioeconomic vulnerability in different areas. This study contributes to scholarship on small businesses and regional resilience, as well as identifying policies and practices that build economic resilience and regional development under conditions of global pandemic disruption.

Suggested Citation

  • Wei Kang & Qingfang Wang, 2023. "The Impact of COVID-19 on Small Businesses in the US: A Longitudinal Study from a Regional Perspective," International Regional Science Review, , vol. 46(3), pages 235-265, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:inrsre:v:46:y:2023:i:3:p:235-265
    DOI: 10.1177/01600176221132230
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Robert W. Fairlie, 2020. "The Impact of Covid-19 on Small Business Owners: The First Three Months after Social-Distancing Restrictions," CESifo Working Paper Series 8581, CESifo.
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    4. Robert Fairlie, 2020. "The impact of COVID‐19 on small business owners: Evidence from the first three months after widespread social‐distancing restrictions," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(4), pages 727-740, October.
    5. Austan Goolsbee & Nicole Bei Luo & Roxanne Nesbitt & Chad Syverson, 2020. "COVID-19 Lockdown Policies at the State and Local Level," Working Papers 2020-116, Becker Friedman Institute for Research In Economics.
    6. Fabian Geelhoedt & Vicente Royuela & David Castells-Quintana, 2021. "Inequality and Employment Resilience: An Analysis of Spanish Municipalities during the Great Recession," International Regional Science Review, , vol. 44(1), pages 113-141, January.
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