Coping with a Dual Shock: Perspective from the Middle East and North Africa
Countries in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) face a dual shock from the Covid-19 pandemic and a collapse in oil prices. The dual shock has...
Exchange Rate Exposure and Firm Dynamics
This paper develops a heterogeneous firm-dynamics model to jointly study firms’ currency debt composition and investment choices. In our model...
Measuring the Ex-Ante Incentive Effects of Bankruptcy Reorganization Procedures
The EU’s 2019 Insolvency Directive increases debt holders’ control over bankruptcy reorganization proceedings, mirroring recent trends in U.S. Chapter...
Public Procurement in Law and Practice
We examine a new data set of laws and practices governing public procurement, as well as procurement outcomes, in 187 countries. We measure regulation...
Survival of Firms during Economic Crisis
We estimate the survival time of nearly 7,000 firms in a dozen of high-income and middle-income countries in a scenario of extreme economic distress...
When economic informality is high, cash transfers may be the best Covid response
Job retention schemes, unemployment benefits and business loans may not apply in many developing countries, write Erica Bosio and Simeon Djankov.
The need to issue long-dated gilts
The COVID-19 crisis presents a multi-faceted challenge to policymakers. A combination of declining commodity prices, the rise in unemployment, and...
UK investment fund for high-growth firms is a step in the right direction
Juanita Gonzalez-Uribe explains in her latest blog why she thinks the second-wave policy tool meant to deal with Covid-19 may have design flaws that...
The simplest way to unlock $4.65 trillion in liquidity for firms
Governments wondering how to help the private sector should look no further: just pay your bills on time, write Erica Bosio, Simeon Djankov, Emilia...
Southern European and emerging market firms are under severe distress
With lockdown measures in place almost worldwide now, cash-flow represents a significant concern for firms across multiple sectors. It remains to be...
Survival of firms in developing economies during economic crisis
With lockdown measures in place worldwide, cash-flow represents a significant concern for firms across multiple sectors. This chapter estimates the...
A Restart Procedure to Deal with Covid-19
Governments around the world are assisting firms to deal with the adverse effects of Covid-19. Most forms of government assistance provided so far...
Europe's pandemic price tag to keep firms afloat
Simeon Djankov's testimony before the members of the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs (ECON) of the European Parliament.
The effects of recessionary stimulus programmes: New evidence from the UK’s Enterprise Finance Guarantee scheme
Loan guarantees to small businesses are emerging as a main policy response during the COVID-19 crisis. Using evidence from the UK’s Enterprise Finance...
How long can firms survive in the Covid-19 crisis?
Median survival time ranges from 8 to 19 weeks across 12 countries. Worryingly, this is not correlated with firm size, age or productivity, which...
It’s time for a recovery plan
With businesses fast running out of cash, governments need to roll out a loan program that builds on the recently-created job retention scheme, write...
