Australian Government COVID-19 Business Supports |
| |
| Authors: | Timothy Watson Paul Buckingham |
| |
| Affiliation: | 1. Centre for Applied Macroeconomic Analysis, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia;2. Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, Canberra, Australia Watson: Centre for Applied Macroeconomic Analysis, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia;3. Watson and Buckingham: Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, Canberra, Australia. Corresponding author: Watson, email <4. timothy.watson@anu.edu.au>5. . |
| |
| 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 job-years 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. |
| |
| Keywords: | |
|
|
