Subash Sasidharan

The coronavirus disease 2019 has severely affected the financially constrained small and medium enterprises (SMEs). In response, various countries employed several policies to support SMEs. Using rich firm-level data from 34 countries, we study the impact of the pandemic-led crisis on cash-strapped SMEs and the role of governments in offsetting losses. Our results suggest that (i) government support programmes target mostly financially constrained firms; (ii) firms adjustments to the pandemic are associated with the likelihood of government support; (iii) financially constrained firms are more likely to lay off workers; and (iv) financially constrained firms layoff more male employees than female employees.