TY - JOUR
T1 - Covid-19 pandemic, firms’ responses, and unemployment in
the ASEAN-5
AU - Ardiyono, Sulistiyo K.
PY - 2022
Y1 - 2022
N2 - Numerous studies have explored the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on firms’
financial performance, but the link between such performance and employment has
rarely been estimated rigorously. Using the ASEAN-5 firms’ data from Q1-2018 to Q3-
2021, this study shows how the pandemic affects firms’ revenue, cost, profitability, and
employment heterogeneously across countries. It is argued that while revenue losses
are the main challenge, widespread and prolonged restrictions in some countries have
created extra complications in idle inventories and labour. In response to the revenue
shocks, firms reduce their employment with an elasticity of around 0.10, indicating that
a 10 per cent revenue decline is associated with a 1 per cent headcount reduction in the
short run. A further examination using event analyses reveals that the path of labour
adjustment is diverse across countries and industries, reflecting the degree of pandemic
severity and countries’ structural issues
AB - Numerous studies have explored the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on firms’
financial performance, but the link between such performance and employment has
rarely been estimated rigorously. Using the ASEAN-5 firms’ data from Q1-2018 to Q3-
2021, this study shows how the pandemic affects firms’ revenue, cost, profitability, and
employment heterogeneously across countries. It is argued that while revenue losses
are the main challenge, widespread and prolonged restrictions in some countries have
created extra complications in idle inventories and labour. In response to the revenue
shocks, firms reduce their employment with an elasticity of around 0.10, indicating that
a 10 per cent revenue decline is associated with a 1 per cent headcount reduction in the
short run. A further examination using event analyses reveals that the path of labour
adjustment is diverse across countries and industries, reflecting the degree of pandemic
severity and countries’ structural issues
U2 - 10.1016/j.eap.2022.08.021
DO - 10.1016/j.eap.2022.08.021
M3 - Article
SN - 0313-5926
VL - 76
SP - 337
EP - 372
JO - Economic Analysis and Policy
JF - Economic Analysis and Policy
ER -