Revista de Economía y Negocios

A Review on Did State-owned Enterprises Do Better during COVID-19? Evidence from a Survey of Company Executives in China

Abstract

Howei Wu and Bin Xu

In the article “Did state-owned enterprises do better during COVID-19? Evidence from a survey of company executives in China,” the authors examine the performance of Chinese state-owned enterprises (SOEs) compared with that of non-SOEs using data from a survey of 1,182 company executives in China. In the survey, SOEs reported less business reductions under COVID-19. The authors apply an estimation approach that separates firm performance resulted from government support and that resulted from innate ability to cope with COVID-19. After controlling for the government-support effect, the authors find that SOEs performed significantly worse in the pandemic period.