Global coronavirus business closures: influences of executive gender, firm characteristics, and government involvement

This paper uses firm-level data across about 30 nations to study the effect of the coronavirus on firms’ closures, with attention to firms with female managers and female owners. We also consider the influences of firms’ characteristics, the role of the government, economy-wide attributes, and industry type. The estimation uses a logit strategy, with country-year level clustered standard errors reported and industry fixed-effects included. Results show that, with somewhat limited statistical support, firms with female managers were more likely to exit, while those with female owners were less likely to. Further, fertility and gender inequality made firms’ exit more likely. Larger and older firms were less likely to exit. Finally, firms located in urbanized nations and those located in nations with larger governments were more likely to close, while the reverse was true in nations with better governance. We find weak support for the notion that heightened and aggressive government efforts to control the pandemic contributed to business closures. Finally, we find that various firm-level and macro factors impact firms’ exit during the COVID-19 pandemic.