The COVID-19 Shock and Productivity-Enhancing Reallocation in Australia: Real-time evidence from Single Touch Payroll

Andrews, Dan; Hambur, Jonathan; Bahar, Elif

doi:10.1787/2f6e7cb1-en

Cited by 5 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 29 publications

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“…It was also reflected in the decision to relax work restrictions on temporary visa holders in the accommodation and food services industries during the pandemic to help ease worker shortages (Leach 2022). Andrews, Hambur & Bahar (2021) present evidence that lower productivity firms had a 3.75 percentage point higher probability of exiting during 2020, suggesting that pandemic measures did not entirely suppress the productivity-survival nexus. On labour reallocation, they find that high productivity firms experienced employment growth 6.5 percentage point higher compared to those with low productivity in 2020.…”

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confidence: 63%

Australian Government COVID‐19 Business Supports

Watson

Buckingham

2023

Australian Economic Review

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This article documents the considerable economic support provided to businesses by the Australian Government in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. We find that measures were associated with higher levels of business profitability and savings, a strong recovery in payroll jobs and wages, and mixed effects with respect to business dynamism. We formally evaluate the SME Cashflow Boost, finding costs per job-year saved in the vicinity of $72-83,000 ($US51-59,000) over its first year, implying between 400 and 500,000 jobyears saved over this period. Combined with results from previous studies, this suggests between 1.1 and 1.3 million job-years were saved by the SME Cashflow Boost and JobKeeper Payment over their respective first years post-announcement.

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confidence: 63%

Australian Government COVID‐19 Business Supports

Watson

Buckingham

2023

Australian Economic Review

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“…It also raises concerns that chronically unproductive businesses may delay their exit from the market longer than it would be socially desirable, as their workforce and capital could be put to better use in more productive firms. However, preliminary evidence from Australia, New Zealand and the UK suggests this may not be the case, as the flow of workers from low to high productivity firms continued during the crisis (Andrews, Charlton and More, 2021 [72]; Andrews, Hambur and Bahar, 2021 [73]).…”

Section: Entry and Exit Dynamics Differ From Those Of Previous Recess...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Understanding Firm Growth

2021

OECD Studies on SMEs and Entrepreneurship

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Few small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) scale up but these few firms are the major driver of new jobs added to OECD economies. In the aftermath of the global COVID-19 crisis, scalers can play a key role in getting growth back on track. In contrast to the 2007-08 global crisis, the potential of scalers seems to be strong as countries rolled out unprecedented policy responses to support viable firms facing extraordinary -but temporary -challenges. However, firms, and particularly SMEs that aim to scale up, still face barriers in unleashing their growth potential such as finding workers with the right skills, making the most of new digital tools or integrating into global value chains.A better understanding of the characteristics of scalers and of the transformation process that they undertake is essential for effective policy design to address growth barriers. This report highlights the wide and varied range of firms with scaling-up potential, pointing towards the need for equally varied policy support. Often, policy packages target only a small share of potential scalers, such as recent start-ups, firms in high-technology sectors or prospective (ever-elusive) unicorns, i.e. privately held companies with a capital-based valuation of USD 1 billion or more. But there are opportunities to unlock growth and job creation in many other types of firms. With the right policy mix in place, scalers can play a key role in transforming new opportunities into jobs and economic growth. However, without detailed knowledge of the characteristics of scalers, policy makers might target their efforts at only a fraction of firms with scaling-up potential or support them with the wrong tools.This report provides new evidence on scalers based on analysis of detailed firm-level data from a pilot project implemented in Finland, Italy, Portugal, the Slovak Republic and Spain. The project serves as proof of concept of the value of opening up the wealth of data locked in the vaults of OECD member countries. Different authorities in the five pilot countries agreed to work with the OECD to facilitate access to their confidential microdata sources. In-depth analysis is possible as national statistical offices and other authorities in the participating countries have made significant efforts to link a wide range of data sources that allow for a much better understanding of the firms that are or will become scalers. A harmonised approach in defining scalers, analysing their performance and exploring their characteristics allows for direct comparison of the results between the five countries.Being a pilot project, the report illustrates the powerful potential of leveraging on microdata, and, in turn, what is possible in many (if not all) OECD member countries by better capitalising on existing data within countries. In that sense, through the provision of powerful new policy messages and indicators -without increasing response burdens and without breaching confidentiality -the project is also intended to provide motivation and momentum for o...

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