Which Industries Received PPP Loans?

Abstract

We examine the financial challenges faced by small businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic and estimate the scale of loans provided to small businesses through the Paycheck Protection Program. We find that the program reached businesses throughout the economy, and we estimate that small businesses in most industry sectors received loans equivalent to between 80 percent and 120 percent of 10 weeks of their 2017 payrolls. That said, there are important differences in the distribution of funds across sectors that suggest some businesses had problems accessing loans and that a significant number of firms with more than 500 employees likely used alternative size criteria to qualify for the program.

PPP Loans & State-level Employment Growth

“…It appears that most of the states received loans equivalent to 85 percent to 115 percent of 10 weeks of their 2018 payroll averages. This result echoes Schweitzer and Borawski's (2021a) analysis at the industry level.…”

“…10. We follow a similar logic presented in Schweitzer and Borawski (2021a) for picking our 500-employee threshold. Data can be accessed at SUSB Datasets (census.gov).…”