Maria Socorro Gochoco-Bautista: This paper investigates whether digitalization of micro-, small-, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) in Indonesia “positively affected” firm business performance under mobility restrictions imposed during the COVID-19 pandemic. The study uses a difference-in-differences methodology and different sets of survey data. It finds that in some cases, digitalized MSMEs initially experienced a negative impact from mobility restrictions despite digitalization, but these effects dissipate over time. In most cases, however, digitalization had no significant impact on firm business outcomes and did not mitigate the effects of mobility restrictions.

  1. In terms of the empirical methodology, the authors state, “The DID method is a popular causal inference method using outcome changes of two comparable groups—one of them (i.e., treatment group) is exposed to the external intervention that a researcher is interested in and the other (i.e., control group) is not.” It is therefore a puzzle to me why “the COVID-19 restrictions on...

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