The Effect of COVID-19 on Mentoring Programs Across Nebraska


Book Description

Research is now emerging on how the COVID-19 pandemic affected the world. The COVID-19 pandemic changed the way workplaces, schools, and businesses operated. This research investigates how the COVID-19 pandemic affected mentoring programs in Nebraska. The research was guided by three questions. How did the COVID-19 pandemic affect communication between mentors and mentees? How did the COVID-19 pandemic affect mentoring relationships? How did COVID-19 impact mentees' and mentors' mental health? To answer these questions, 162 mentoring programs were sent a Qualtrics survey. Results indicated that communication levels between pairs declined as a result of communicating virtually. Mentoring relationships suffered due to the impersonal nature of online communication and the lack of personal interactions. Our results also indicate that agencies had increased concerns over the mental wellbeing of the population it served.




Final Report


Book Description

"The Business Innovation Act was part of the Nebraska Talent and Innovation Initiative passed by the Nebraska Legislature and signed into law by the Governor in 2011. There [are] also additional incentives for businesses involved in value-added agriculture. This study by the UNL Bureau of Business Research provides an economic impact assessment of Nebraska businesses which have been support by the Nebraska Business Innovation Act program . . . . This study finds significant private sector investment for each dollar of state support . . . . The study found that participating businesses have earned $2.32 in revenue from sales for each $1 of state funding" (page i).




The Economic and Financial Impacts of the COVID-19 Crisis Around the World


Book Description

The Economic and Financial Impacts of the COVID-19 Crisis Around the World: Expect the Unexpected provides an informed, research-based in-depth understanding of the COVID-19 crisis, its impacts on households, nonfinancial firms, banks, and financial market participants, and the effectiveness of the reactions of governments and policymakers in the United States and around the world. It provides reflections and perspectives on the social costs and benefits of various policies undertaken and a toolkit of preventive measures to deal with crises beyond the COVID-19 crisis. Authors Allen N. Berger, Mustafa U. Karakaplan, and Raluca A. Roman apply their expertise to the research and data on the COVID-19 economic crisis as well as draw on their own rich research experience. They take a holistic approach that compares and contrasts this crisis with other economic and financial crises and assesses economic and financial behavior and government policies in the booms before crises and the aftermaths following them, as well as the crises themselves. They do all this with a keen eye on “Expecting the Unexpected future crises, and policies that might anticipate them and provide better outcomes for society. Serves as a compendium of available research and data on COVID-19, policies in response to the pandemic, and its effects on the real economy, banking sector, and financial markets Contextualizes the COVID-19 economic crisis by comparing it to two other global crises from the past: the Crash of 1929 and the Global Financial Crisis of 2007–2009 Helps illustrate how crises that originate in financial markets and in the banking sector differ from each other as well as from the COVID-19 crisis that harmed the real economy first Compares the policies and outcomes of nations to the COVID-19 pandemic and assesses their costs and benefits, with potential implications for prospective future crises




Final Report


Book Description




Final Report


Book Description










The Effects of COVID-19 on U.S. Small Businesses


Book Description

We analyze a large-scale survey of owners, managers, and employees of small businesses in the United States to understand the effects of the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic on those businesses. The survey was fielded in late April 2020 among Facebook business page administrators, frequent sellers on Facebook's e-commerce platform Marketplace, and the general Facebook user population. We observe more than 66,000 responses covering most sectors of the economy, including many businesses that had stopped operating due to the pandemic. The survey asks 136 questions covering topics such as changes in business operations and employment, changes in financing patterns, and the interaction of household and business responsibilities. We characterize the adjustments implemented to survive the pandemic and explore the key challenges to continue operating or to re-open. We show how these patterns differ across industry, firm size, owner gender, and other firm characteristics.




The Impact of COVID-19 on Small Business Owners


Book Description

Social distancing restrictions and health- and economic-driven demand shifts from COVID-19 are expected to shutter many small businesses and entrepreneurial ventures, but there is very little early evidence on impacts. 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. The drop in active business owners was the largest on record, and losses to business activity were felt across nearly all industries. African-American businesses were hit especially hard experiencing a 41 percent drop in business activity. Latinx business owner activity fell by 32 percent, and Asian business owner activity dropped by 26 percent. Simulations indicate that industry compositions partly placed these groups at a higher risk of business activity losses. Immigrant business owners experienced substantial losses in business activity of 36 percent. Female business owners were also disproportionately affected (25 percent drop in business activity). Continuing the analysis in May and June, the number of active business owners remained low - down by 15 percent and 8 percent, respectively. The continued losses in May and June, and partial rebounds from April were felt across all demographic groups and most industries. These findings of early-stage losses to small business activity have important implications for policy, income losses, and future economic inequality.