Australian Government COVID‐19 Business Supports

Abstract

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.

Introduction

“…Where fiscal policy responses to COVID-19 were questioned at the time they were introduced, it was usually to do with considerations of fairness. and Watson and Buckingham 2023). The amount of $314 billion for total fiscal support is from Kennedy (2022).…”

“…Watson and Buckingham (2023) evaluate the SME Cashflow Boost program. The program, which cost $35.4 billion, involved the automatic delivery of up to two tax‐free cash payments of between $10,000 and $50,000 to eligible businesses during 2020 and the first half of 2021.…”

Resilience of rural businesses in times of crisis: Firm survival during the COVID-19 pandemic in Finland

“…The pandemic was expected to lead to permanent business closures (Watson and Buckingham, 2023). The evidence on the matter is, however, mixed: whereas some studies point towards extraordinarily high rates of business closures (Li and Stoler, 2023), others report lower than expected business closure rates during COVID-19 (Crane et al, 2022).…”

“…To alleviate the detrimental effects of the pandemic and subsequent restrictions on businesses, most national governments introduced business support funding schemes to help them survive the crisis (Watson and Buckingham, 2023). In the Finnish context, these funding schemes included business and fixed cost support, compensation for the cost incurred due to restrictions in the operating hours of businesses, temporary lockdowns, and cancelled events as well as business development and innovation funding.…”

Job (In)Security: Why Did More People Feel Insecure About Their Jobs During the COVID-19 Pandemic?

“…In the UK, an estimate of at least £310 billion was spent on support measures, including the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS) for households and various grants, guaranteed loans and tax concessions for businesses (Brien and Keep, 2022;Pope and Hourston, 2022). Similar measures were undertaken by the Australian government, with the JobKeeper Scheme drawing a particular likeness to the CJRS, and they spent $291 billion up to May 2021 (Treasury, 2021;Watson and Buckingham, 2023).These responses depended on national nancial instruments to maintain livelihoods and jobs, and for mechanisms to ensure the wellbeing of individuals, rms and the economy through lockdowns. However, those same instruments exacerbated vulnerabilities for everyone partaking in those systems through greater Reinvention: an International Journal of Undergraduate Research 16:2 (2023) indebtedness, compromised welfare policies, less secure housing and unjust globalisation.…”