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The Impact of COVID-19 on Small Business Owners: The First Three Months After Social-Distancing Restrictions

July 2020
Published by: Robert W. Fairlie, Ph.D.

This paper provides the first analysis of impacts of the pandemic on the number of active small businesses in the United States using nationally representative data from the April 2020 CPS – the first month fully capturing early effects. The number of active business  owners  in  the  United  States  plummeted  by  3.3  million  or  22  percent  over  the crucial two-month  window  from  February  to  April  2020.