Alina Urazbaeva's Presentation at the Academic Seminar of the Department of Applied Economics
On May 14, 2026, Alina Urazbaeva, Research Assistant at the Laboratory for Spatial Econometric Modeling of Socio-Economic Processes in Russia, presented at the Department of Applied Economics Academic Seminar at HSE University.
Alina delivered a report entitled "The Impact of Government Support on the Growth of Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises During Periods of Economic Turbulence" (supervised by Dr. O.A. Demidova).
The study, which combined analysis of Asia-Pacific countries (APAC) and Russian regions, yielded the following key findings:
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For APAC countries: no significant negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on new firm creation was found. Government support generally has a positive effect on business formation, but emergency support measures during the pandemic did not produce an additional significant effect.
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Response to shocks in Russian regions: as pandemic restrictions and sanctions pressure intensify, the number of new SMEs changes differently depending on the region's economic specialization (mining, agriculture, manufacturing, services) and the nature of the shock itself.
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Impact of government support in Russian regions: the positive effect of support measures manifests with a lag of 2–4 months. Moreover, a significant effect is observed only in regions strongly exposed to shocks: during the pandemic — in regions with high levels of restrictions; under sanctions — in regions with medium and high sanctions risk. In regions with low shock exposure, additional government support yields no significant effect.
The research is based on a series of papers published in Q1–Q4 journals (including the European Management Journal, Economic Policy, and Applied Econometrics).
