Publication: Assessment of Firms' Financial Resilience against Pandemic and Disaster Shocks in Albania
Loading...
Published
2021-06
ISSN
Date
2022-04-04
Author(s)
Editor(s)
Abstract
Over the period 2019–21, Albania had to confront dual shocks: the 2019 earthquake and the COVID-19 pandemic. Both had sizable impacts on the country’s economy. The COVID-19 pandemic took a heavy toll on an economy already affected by the earthquake in 2019. Key sectors were put in lockdown in the second quarter of 2020, and the economy suffered a severe contraction of -10.6 percent in gross domestic product (GDP). The pandemic hit the travel, tourism, and other services sectors first; then mobility restrictions and post-COVID-19 behavior changes affected firms’ supply and demand. Given the structure of the economy, the associated loss in sales and profits had a disproportionate effect on small and medium enterprises
Link to Data Set
Citation
“World Bank. 2021. Assessment of Firms' Financial Resilience against Pandemic and Disaster Shocks in Albania. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/37258 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”
Digital Object Identifier
Associated URLs
Associated content
Other publications in this report series
Journal
Journal Volume
Journal Issue
Collections
Related items
Showing items related by metadata.
Publication Financial Protection of the State against Natural Disasters : A Primer(2010-09-01)This paper has been prepared for policy makers interested in establishing or strengthening financial strategies to increase the financial response capacity of governments of developing countries in the aftermath of natural disasters, while protecting their long-term fiscal balances. It analyzes various aspects of emergency financing, including the types of instruments available, their relative costs and disbursement speeds, and how these can be combined to provide cost-effective financing for the different phases that follow a disaster. The paper explains why governments are usually better served by retaining most of their natural disaster risk while using risk transfer mechanisms to manage the excess volatility of their budgets or access immediate liquidity after a disaster. Finally, it discusses innovative approaches to disaster risk financing and provides examples of strategies that developing countries have implemented in recent years.Publication Sovereign Natural Disaster Insurance for Developing Countries : A Paradigm Shift in Catastrophe Risk Financing(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2007-09)Economic theory suggests that countries should ignore uncertainty for public investment and behave as if indifferent to risk because they can pool risks to a much greater extent than private investors can. This paper discusses the general economic theory in the case of developing countries. The analysis identifies several cases where the government's risk-neutral assumption does not hold, thus making rational the use of ex ante risk financing instruments, including sovereign insurance. The paper discusses the optimal level of sovereign insurance. It argues that, because sovereign insurance is usually more expensive than post-disaster financing, it should mainly cover immediate needs, while long-term expenditures should be financed through post-disaster financing (including ex post borrowing and tax increases). In other words, sovereign insurance should not aim at financing the long-term resource gap, but only the short-term liquidity need.Publication Funding vs. Real Economy Shock : The Impact of the 2007-2009 Crisis on Small Firms' Credit Availability(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2012-04)This paper analyzes the impact of two distinct shocks stemming from the cross-border transmission of the 2007-2009 crisis on credit availability for small firms. The paper uses data from AccessBank Azerbaijan which was affected in its liquidity position during the second and third quarters of 2008 by delays in its refinancing. The Azeri real economy was hit by the global crisis from the fourth quarter of 2008 onwards with a combined decline in oil prices, exports, remittances, and domestic demand. Therefore, a pure supply side shock con be contrasted with a real economy shock that hit exactly when the bank's funding position strengthened again. The paper finds that during the funding shock (potential) borrowers are discouraged from applying for loans. However, for those applications made, the likelihood of loan approval is not affected. The real economy shock, in contrast, reduces the approval likelihood for SME loans in particular, while agro and micro loans are considerably less affected. Finally, bank relationships increase credit availability in good as well as in bad times.Publication Resilient Industries(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2020-10-29)Industrial activity creates jobs, catalyzes investments and innovation, and raises standards of living in many countries. As climate change, and natural disasters intensify, so too does the risk environment for industry activity. More recently, a viral pandemic has threatened industries and national economies, and the imperative to secure business continuity and competitiveness during growing instability has thrust resilience into the spotlight. The suite of risks posed by climate change and natural disasters threatens industry’s potential to grow, generate jobs, and compete. For many developing countries, disaster-related liabilities may exceed the capacity of governments to respond, and even national economies may be threatened. The emergence of industry resilience as a global discourse is timely; however, industry resilience is a nascent discipline, and frameworks for its application and operation remain limited even as threats intensify. Disasters offer the opportunity, with the right frameworks in place, to strengthen competitiveness through build back, better initiatives, and to adapt to long-term climate change and disaster risks. Despite these insights, and the urgency to act, however, the evidential basis for policy intervention and conceptual frameworks for industry resilience are far from definitive, and gaps in knowledge remain. As a result, industry resilience policy and action remain low in both the public and private sectors, and firms and economies still face significant costs of inaction.Publication Resilience of the Caribbean Tourism Industry - New Evidence from a Firm Survey(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2021-10-01)Natural hazards, including hurricanes, floods and landslides, are a common phenomenon in the Caribbean, affecting both residents and private companies. Researchers estimate probability of Caribbean country to be hit by a natural hazard as 14% in any given year, making it one of the most vulnerable regions in the world. In recent years, several super storms have devastated the region, including Hurricane Maria, Hurricane Irma, Hurricane Matthew and Tropical Storm Dorian causing immense damages. The World Travel and Tourism Council ranks the Caribbean as the most tourism-dependent region relative to the contribution of travel and tourism to gross domestic product (GDP). The sector has grown continuously since the 1970s. Between 2080 and 1995 average annual growth in tourist arrivals was 5 percent. The growth continued for the following 15 years, but average annual growth slowed to 2.4 percent. Before the COVID-19 crisis, arrivals were expected to continue to grow but slower than international average. COVID-19 has completely changed the outlook for tourism, and it is still early to tell what recovery will look like as the crisis is still unfolding.
Users also downloaded
Showing related downloaded files
Publication Urban Greenhouse Gas Modeling Tools(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2022)Urban GHG modeling tools vary in their intended uses, user interfaces, inputs, outputs, costs, etc. This knowledge note is intended as a primer, to help cities and organizations working with cities understand and select from among the tools available, based on their needs. It does not endorse any one tool over others.Publication Digital Africa(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2023-03-13)All African countries need better and more jobs for their growing populations. "Digital Africa: Technological Transformation for Jobs" shows that broader use of productivity-enhancing, digital technologies by enterprises and households is imperative to generate such jobs, including for lower-skilled people. At the same time, it can support not only countries’ short-term objective of postpandemic economic recovery but also their vision of economic transformation with more inclusive growth. These outcomes are not automatic, however. Mobile internet availability has increased throughout the continent in recent years, but Africa’s uptake gap is the highest in the world. Areas with at least 3G mobile internet service now cover 84 percent of Africa’s population, but only 22 percent uses such services. And the average African business lags in the use of smartphones and computers as well as more sophisticated digital technologies that catalyze further productivity gains. Two issues explain the usage gap: affordability of these new technologies and willingness to use them. For the 40 percent of Africans below the extreme poverty line, mobile data plans alone would cost one-third of their incomes—in addition to the price of access devices, apps, and electricity. Data plans for small- and medium-size businesses are also more expensive than in other regions. Moreover, shortcomings in the quality of internet services—and in the supply of attractive, skills-appropriate apps that promote entrepreneurship and raise earnings—dampen people’s willingness to use them. For those countries already using these technologies, the development payoffs are significant. New empirical studies for this report add to the rapidly growing evidence that mobile internet availability directly raises enterprise productivity, increases jobs, and reduces poverty throughout Africa. To realize these and other benefits more widely, Africa’s countries must implement complementary and mutually reinforcing policies to strengthen both consumers’ ability to pay and willingness to use digital technologies. These interventions must prioritize productive use to generate large numbers of inclusive jobs in a region poised to benefit from a massive, youthful workforce—one projected to become the world’s largest by the end of this century.Publication Deep-Dive on Malaysia’s Digital Services Trade(Washington, DC, 2022-03)The rapid expansion of digital technologies around the world has impacted many economic and social activities with increasingly reliable and fast Internet connectivity changing how people communicate, work, and live. Digital services have also played an important role in keeping the world connected and economies running during the COVID-19 pandemic. It is therefore crucial that countries implement proactive polices to become more digitalized and target the creation of an inclusive digital economy in order to foster sustainable and inclusive economic growth. Cross-border data transfer regulations also play an important role in supporting trade in digital services. The Malaysia digital economy report produced by the World Bank in 2018 examined three interrelated issues that are closely aligned with Malaysia’s own goal of becoming an e-commerce hub for the region. Building on this research agenda, this deep dive seeks to explain how the role of digital services trade can be enhanced to contribute to Malaysia’s competitiveness and integration into the global marketplace. The paper is structured as follows: section one gives introduction and context. Sections 2 and 3 benchmarks Malaysia’s digital preparedness (for example, in terms of Internet penetration ratios) against its structural, aspirational, and regional peers. Section 4 assesses the performance of Malaysia’s digital services trade and digital economy, including in sub-sectors such as e-commerce and FinTech which are both important elements of digitalization. Section 5 discusses the constraints to deeper integration and development of the digital sector in the Malaysian economy. Section 6 presents the main findings and makes policy recommendations.Publication South Caucasus - Navigating Challenges in Georgian Higher Education(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-01-13)In 2024, the World Bank Education Team in Georgia, under the analytical activity - Strengthening Higher Education and Research in South Caucasus, issued a call for policy research papers. The objective was to gain insights into existing challenges within the higher education sector from the perspective of the country's higher education stakeholders and to promote evidence-based policy discussions aimed at enhancing the quality of higher education and fostering research activities in Georgia. Through a competitive selection process, six research teams and individual researchers were awarded grants to conduct a three-month study in various areas of higher education. This report was produced to analyze key challenges in Georgia's current higher education landscape also drawing on the research findings from these studies.Publication Slovakia - Understanding the Productivity of Slovakia’s Local Governments(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-05-07)This report employs a diverse range of data sources to examine district-level variations in public sector productivity in Slovakia. It leverages administrative data to measure productivity from the Fabasoft and Cezir data systems that provide detailed insights into case management and business licensing processes. Employment data, sourced from the government's job portal, sheds light on competition for public sector jobs. Additionally, a survey of district office public officials captures their management practices and attitudes. By incorporating these varied data sources, the report offers a comprehensive understanding of productivity factors and management dynamics within district offices, enabling a complex and informed assessment of the determinants of public sector productivity.