The federal government’s Corona's economic assistance programs to businesses were aimed at cushioning the economic damage caused by the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. In particular, the measures to provide financial assistance to businesses were intended to offset declines in sales, as many companies had to curtail or completely shut down their operations during the pandemic. They were aimed at covering the companies' ongoing fixed costs, maintaining their equity base and avoiding insolvencies in the short term, thus also helping to safeguard jobs. In particular, small and medium-sized enterprises and the self-employed had difficulty maintaining sufficient liquidity to pay their bills and continue operations. The intended reduction in liquidity shortages was also intended to mitigate multiplier effects on other businesses and the financial sector from payment defaults. 

The federal government provided a portfolio of economic aid programs over the course of the pandemic, including in particular Corona Emergency Assistance (Corona-Soforthilfe), Bridging Assistance (Überbrückungshilfe), Restart Assistance (Neustarthilfe), Extraordinary Economic Assistance (November/December Assistance), and Hardship Assistance (Härtefallhilfen).

The goal of this project, which is designed in two parts, is to evaluate the five aforementioned Corona Economic Assistance programs. The evaluation should enable conclusions to be drawn about the objectives and the achievement of the objectives, the effectiveness of the national subsidies and the economic efficiency of the program, as well as assessing macroeconomic effects. The evaluation of the degree to which the objectives were achieved and the effectiveness of the aid is of great importance because, on the one hand, it required considerable financial resources and is thus subject to a special duty of legitimacy. In total, financial aid of around 76 billion euros was provided. On the other hand, they created new temporary governance structures in the cooperation between the federal and state governments, but also in the involvement of "examining third parties," which require an evaluation of success. The viability of policy design and administrative implementation for future crisis management is crucial in terms of strengthening the resilience of politics, the economy and society. In the first part of the project, we will

• examine and assesse the design and administrative implementation of Corona's Economic Assistance programs
• descriptively analyse the economic aid programs
• monitor and evaluate to what extent the programs have achieved their goals
• evaluate the Corona Emergency Assistance program (Soforthilfe) on the basis of a target and effectiveness analysis

Further information and the final report on the first part of the evaluation can be found here (https://www.zew.de/forschung/projekte/evaluation-der-corona-wirtschaftshilfen-des-bundes).

The aim of part 2 of the evaluation of the Corona's economic assistance programs is to conduct a causal effectiveness analysis and economic efficiency review of the following three Corona economic assistance programs:

• Überbrückungshilfe (Temporary aid) (ÜBH I, ÜBH II, ÜBH III, ÜBH III Plus, and ÜBH IV)
• Neustarthilfe (NHS, NSH Plus, and NSH 2022)

• außerordentliche Wirtschaftshilfen (Novemberhilfe (NoHi) und Dezemberhilfe (DeHi)

Due to the complexity and macroeconomic significance of the Corona's economic assistance programs, its effectiveness is analyzed on the basis of a combination of microeconometric control group approaches and macroeconomic approaches.