NEW YORK — The Federal Reserve Bank of New York will issue a brief on COVID-19 and Black-owned businesses on Tuesday, August 4, at 11:00 AM EDT.
The brief looks at why Black-owned firms have been almost twice as likely to shutter as small firms overall during the pandemic. The study draws on epidemiological data on COVID-19 cases, Census data on business locations, data on the geographic reach of the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), and data on small firms’ financial health from the Federal Reserve’s Small Business Credit Survey. Using these sources, the brief examines the geographic concentration of COVID-19 cases and Black-owned business locations, the reach of federal policy interventions, and business survival rates.