![\"\"](\"https:\/\/esbri.se\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/IMG_5296-809x1024.jpeg\")
– One explanation for this may be that many of them were already financially strapped before the pandemic broke out, and perhaps saw it as a last resort for survival. But instead, the application process became the nail in the coffin because it was such a complicated process, says \u00c5sa Grek. <\/p>\n\n
Bigger companies the winners<\/h2>\n\n
Even among small businesses (10-49 employees), which received support, the survival rate did not increase compared to those that did not.<\/p>\n\n
– For small businesses, the crisis support did not make a difference.<\/p>\n\n
What is clear from the research, however, is that the larger the company, the more likely it is to survive with the help of short-time work support.<\/p>\n\n
– For micro-entrepreneurs who received support, the probability of going bankrupt increased by around 2%, while support for small entrepreneurs reduced their chances of going bankrupt by around 2%. And for medium-sized companies (50-249 employees), the risk of bankruptcy was further reduced to 7%, explains \u00c5sa Grek. <\/p>\n\n
– Medium and large companies have more resources to deal with complex and extensive applications, which small companies do not have in the same way.\nTherefore, one may think it is an unfair system, that the support is not on equal terms. <\/p>\n\n
Increased productivity with fewer employees<\/h2>\n\n
\u00c5sa Grek also studied the number of employees before and after the pandemic in companies that received crisis support.\nOn average, the number of employees in all companies, regardless of size, decreased by almost 1 employee (0.7). <\/p>\n\n
– In a large company, it’s barely noticeable. But in a company with seven employees, the loss of one person can have a huge impact on the business, she says. <\/p>\n\n
– At the same time, we see that the companies that applied for and received support for short-time work had increased productivity afterwards.\nIt is likely that the pandemic helped to streamline work and manufacturing processes. <\/p>\n\n
Simpler system would have saved more<\/h2>\n\n
\u00c5sa Grek believes that a simpler system of government crisis aid is needed, to ensure that it has a fair impact and does not only benefit companies with muscle.<\/p>\n\n
– During the pandemic, it was also possible to apply for tax deferrals. But even that effort seems to have only been good for big businesses. “Many small businesses have gone bankrupt now because they have had difficulty paying their taxes afterwards, she says. <\/p>\n\n
Instead, Grek believes that the government should introduce more automated crisis support.<\/p>\n\n
– Companies did not need to apply for reimbursement of sick pay costs during the pandemic. Instead, it was done automatically via the employer declaration and the Swedish Tax Agency. Such a flexible system for short-time work would have been better for all companies, especially for small businesses, says \u00c5sa Grek. <\/p>\n\n
Beyond creating simpler application processes to ensure a level playing field for all businesses, what is your main message to policy makers?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n – That it is crucial to build policy interventions on accurate data.\nEvaluations of short-time work support during the pandemic have used data at an aggregate level.\nBased on this data, it is difficult to say anything about how the support has worked for different types of businesses. <\/p>\n\n – With our data, we can see exactly which companies have received the support, when they received it and how much they received. We then matched this with the companies’ annual reports. This is the only way to get a true picture of the impact of the crisis support, says \u00c5sa Grek. <\/p>\n\n Contact age@du.se<\/a><\/p>\n\n More about the thesis<\/strong> Government support for short-time work during the pandemic was meant to save businesses from bankruptcy.
\nHowever, the cumbersome application process was more of a nail in the coffin for the smallest companies. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":31850,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[109,404],"tags":[287,125,288,286,123,137],"class_list":["post-31862","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","category-visa-deepl","tag-bankruptcy","tag-entrepreneurship","tag-large-companies","tag-pandemic","tag-research","tag-small-businesses"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/esbri.se\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31862","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/esbri.se\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/esbri.se\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esbri.se\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esbri.se\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31862"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/esbri.se\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31862\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31913,"href":"https:\/\/esbri.se\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31862\/revisions\/31913"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esbri.se\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31850"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/esbri.se\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31862"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esbri.se\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31862"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esbri.se\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31862"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}