TY - GEN AB - This paper assesses the prospects of a 2021 time bomb in SME failures triggered by the generous support policies enacted during the 2020 COVID-19 crisis. Policies implemented in 2020, on their own, do not create a 2021 "time-bomb" for SMEs. Rather, business failures and policy costs remain modest. By contrast, credit contraction poses significant risk. Such a contraction would disproportionately impact firms that could survive COVID-19 in 2020 without any fiscal support. Even in that scenario, most business failures would not arise from excessively generous 2020 policies, but rather from the contraction of credit to the corporate sector.<p><p> Data and code for conference paper published in AEA Papers and Proceedings. AD - University of California - Berkeley AD - University of Maryland AD - Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta AD - Bank of Canada AU - Gourinchas, Pierre-Olivier AU - Kalemli-Özcan, Sebnem AU - Penciakova, Veronika AU - Sander, Nick DA - 2021-06-01 DO - 10.3886/E139021V2 DO - DOI ID - 3987 LA - eng N2 - This paper assesses the prospects of a 2021 time bomb in SME failures triggered by the generous support policies enacted during the 2020 COVID-19 crisis. Policies implemented in 2020, on their own, do not create a 2021 "time-bomb" for SMEs. Rather, business failures and policy costs remain modest. By contrast, credit contraction poses significant risk. Such a contraction would disproportionately impact firms that could survive COVID-19 in 2020 without any fiscal support. Even in that scenario, most business failures would not arise from excessively generous 2020 policies, but rather from the contraction of credit to the corporate sector.<p><p> Data and code for conference paper published in AEA Papers and Proceedings. PB - American Economics Association PY - 2021-06-01 T1 - Data and Code for: COVID-19 and Small- and Medium-Sized Enterprises: A 2021 “Time Bomb”? TI - Data and Code for: COVID-19 and Small- and Medium-Sized Enterprises: A 2021 “Time Bomb”? Y1 - 2021-06-01 ER -