The paper uses newly released Small Business Pulse Survey data on small business’ response to questions about overall COVID-19 impact, federal aid request, federal aid receipt, and subsequent changes in revenue and employee hours to evaluate the efficacy of three federal aid programs: Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL), and Small Business Administration (SBA) loan forgiveness programs. The paper finds no evidence that the severity of COVID-19 impact is related to the application and approval rate of any of the SBA assistance programs, implying that the relief funds did not reach the firms that need the liquidity injection the most. But the firms that did receive the relief funds were less likely to report revenue decrease and employee hours decline during the subsequent weeks. This result provides preliminary support to the social insurance value of the relief programs in boosting small businesses’ economic activities during the COVID-19 crisis.

该论文使用新发布的小企业脉搏调查数据来评估三项联邦援助计划的效果：薪资保护计划 (PPP)、经济伤害灾难贷款 (EIDL) 和小企业管理局 (SBA) 贷款减免计划。该论文没有发现任何证据表明 COVID-19 影响的严重程度与任何 SBA 援助计划的申请和批准率有关，这意味着救济资金没有到达最需要流动性注入的公司。但确实收到救助资金的公司在接下来的几周内报告收入下降和员工工作时间减少的可能性较小。这一结果为 COVID-19 危机期间救济计划在促进小企业经济活动方面的社会保险价值提供了初步支持。