Abstract:

During the pandemic crises of Covid-19 all life sectors were altered. In this framework an adequate the policy response was needed. Our paper focuses on the analyses of the level of financial governmental support on Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) and its economic performance impact in Albania. To answer the research question, we use data for Albania from Enterprise Surveys (ES) follow up for the period 2020. The survey was a shared project of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), the European Investment Bank (EIB), and the World Bank Group (WBG). The questions included in the dataset contribute to understanding what firms experience in the private sector with a particular attention on their response to Covid-19 pandemic challenges.

Collected data are based on firms’ experiences and enterprises’ perceptions of the environment in which they operate. To realize the empirical analysis the dependent variable is the SME performance. In our paper the enterprise performance is measured in terms of sales, employees, and fixed assets growth. On the other side, the vector of independent variables is composed of enterprise characteristics such as enterprise age, size, ownership structure, legal status, access to formal banking services, gender ownership, and other composed variables. Moreover, to capture the level of governmental support SMEs, we will focus the following ES questions: Whether enterprises received support in the form of (1) cash transfers, (2) deferral of payments, (3) wage subsidies, or (4) some other form. Preliminary empirical research results shed light on the positive effect of government support on enterprises’ performance. However, the magnitude and statistical significance are different and give several political implications in support of enterprise development.

Keywords:

Firm Performance, Entrepreneurship, Governmental Support.

Jel Classification:

L25, L26, J23, L21.

How to Cite:

Brilanda Bushati and Ermira H. Kalaj. Assessing the Policy Response Amidst Covid-19 in Albania: a Firm Level Investigation. [ref]: vol.21.2023. available at: https://refpress.org/ref-vol21-a134/