# **2. Description of the survey and the dataset**

The World Bank Group (WBG) has developed a brief firm survey instrument to collect data measuring the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the private sector. The questionnaire _checks the pulse_ of businesses measuring the impact on some critical dimensions: operations of the business, sales, liquidity and insolvency, labor adjustments, firms responses, expectations and uncertainty about the future, and preferred mechanisms of public support. The appendix shows the standard version of the questionnaire.

In this paper we describe the results using harmonized data based on the implementation of the first wave of the business pulse survey in 51 countries over 6 regions.<sup>6</sup> In most countries interviews were conducted over the phone, but in a few countries such as Colombia or Turkey, the questionnaire was administered online. In 31 of these countries, a fresh sample of businesses was collected and the survey was implemented in collaboration with private sector associations, statistical agencies, and other government agencies (mainly Ministries of Finance and Economy). Data for the remaining 20 countries were collected as a follow-up of the World Bank Enterprise Survey, using a questionnaire that excluded some questions from the standard version.<sup>7</sup> The data include micro, small, medium, and large businesses, across all main sectors (i.e. agriculture, manufacturing, retail, and other services, including construction). Micro-businesses account for 51% of observations in the cross-country data; only around 8% of observations report more than 100 employees before the COVID-19 shock (January 2020; Figure A2). Most businesses in the data are in wholesale and retail (28%), manufacturing (17%), and food preparation services (15%; Figure A3). The sampling frame in some countries excluded micro-firms and/or businesses in agriculture (see Table A2 and Table A3) and in some countries, when micro-businesses were included, the survey instrument offered simplified versions of some questions in order to facilitate data collection.<sup>8</sup> The sampling frame in most countries where the pulse survey was not a follow-up of the Enterprise Survey was based on censuses from Statistics Agencies, Ministries of Finance or Economy, or business listings from Business Associations, and typically only included registered businesses. In the case of the Enterprise Survey, by design the implementation covers only formal firms. Only Cambodia, Gabon, Ghana, Pakistan, the Philippines, Senegal, South Africa, Sudan, and Tunisia include informal firms in their sample.

Given some of the heterogeneity related to the differences in country samples, implementation strategy, and timing of the surveys, we introduce different controls in the analysis. To control for differences in the composition of the sample, we include in the analysis dummies for size and sub-sector (10 groups), in addition to country fixed-effects. The timing of implementation of the

> 6In Brazil, the standard pulse survey was implemented not at the national level but on two representative states; Ceara, one of the poorest states located in the North-East, and S _a_  ̃o Paulo, the largest and richest of the country, concentrating almost one third of Brazil’s GDP.

> 7Source: Enterprise Surveys, The World Bank, http://www.enterprisesurveys.org. The two instruments, the standard pulse survey and the Enterprise Survey follow-up, were implemented in Togo. In Bangladesh, the standard pulse survey was implemented on different samples and at different times of the shock. The survey instrument differed across countries but in most cases the Enterprise Survey COVID-19 follow-up excludes some questions on the adjustment to employment and the channels affecting the operations of the business, the module on expectations, and most questions on the adoption of technology as a response to the crisis.

> 8As a result, in some areas when there is no equivalent question, micro firms are excluded from the analysis.

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