An Empirical Investigation of the Economic Impacts of COVID-19: Micro-level Evidence from Europe

This paper empirically investigates the economic impacts of COVID-19. Using firm-level data from Europe, we first analyze the statistics of how firms’ production, sales, workforce, expectations, and received government support have been affected during 2020. We then examine the determinants of production reductions encountered by European firms during COVID-19 and compare between countries with different income levels. We find that both capacity utilization – to be specific, a firm’s output produced as a percentage of its maximum production capability – and employment size exert important influences on the likelihood of firms’ reduced production. Interestingly, receiving government support increases the likelihood of firms downsizing production in high-income countries, yet causes the opposite in low-income countries.