COVID-19 Pandemic in the V4 Countries: An Empirical Investigation of Variations across Firm Sizes and Business Sectors

We provide one of the first large sample studies to examine the effect of the COVID-19 crisis on firm profitability and liquidity for micro, small, and medium-sized firms in the Visegrad Four (V4) countries. Using panel analysis and difference-in-differences estimation we analyze a sample of 101,872 private firms from V4 countries. We specified six different sectors to analyze companies' financial data. We concluded that companies are affected by COVID-19 differently given company size, sector classification, and countries where they are operating. We proved that micro-businesses were more affected than small and medium-sized firms and the six sectors were affected differently across the V4 countries. Investigating the given measures and aims by the EC to the V4 countries in the period 2020-2021, we concluded that the programs were less specified on sectors and were restricted generally to SMEs only in Slovakia. We argue that the public policies had a different impact across sectors and countries, depending on if the target was some particular business size or sector.