Pandemic Has Shuttered More than 2 Million Small Businesses

The number of active small businesses in the US declined by 2.2 million between February and May 2020, according to Research Associate Robert W. Fairlie of the University of California, Santa Barbara. These findings along with information on the differential impact on business owners in different ethnic and racial groups are presented in a recent working paper (27462) and summarized in the short video above.

Several NBER working papers distributed this week examine pandemic-related issues at the intersection of economics and epidemiology. These include analysis of disease dynamics in a spatial model of disease diffusion with behavioral responses (27590), the factors that contribute to ethnic and racial disparities in COVID-19 infection rates and severity (27592), and age-related patterns of COVID-19 fatality rates (27597).

Nearly 200 NBER working papers have presented research related to COVID-19.  These papers are open access and have been collected for easy reference. Like all NBER papers, they are circulated for discussion and comment, and have not been peer-reviewed. View them in reverse chronological order or by topic area.