Due to unprecedented circumstances brought on by the COVID-19 outbreak, Florida Gulf Coast University’s Lutgert College of Business has created a survey to help understand the economic impact the pandemic is having on Southwest Florida.
WGCU’s Andrea Perdomo spoke with FGCU Assistant Professor of Economics, Amir Borges Ferreira Neto about the survey and its results.
Perdomo:
Can you tell me a little bit about the reasoning behind creating a survey that will gauge the economic impacts during this pandemic?
Ferreira Neto:
Sure. So this pandemic is completely different from everything we've seen so far right? People are afraid that if we should go to the supermarket, maybe we won't find groceries and whatnot. So we have this supply side to this pandemic. So it's important for us to understand this pandemic on its own. With the coronavirus, We do not know when it started, when it's going to end and who is being affected. So, it's important for us to have this understanding of when it started, when it's ending and who is being affected.
Perdomo:
So, what is the importance of looking at our regional economy during a pandemic?
Ferreira Neto:
The key thing about the regional economy that we should understand is that each region will be different from the others, right? We're going to have particularities in terms of the industries that are present, the workforce, who are the consumers, the population living there. When we look at the economy, it's important to understand all these small pieces and how they interact with each other to get a full picture of the effect of the coronavirus in the economy. We saw, like, 6 million people asking for unemployment assistance, people being laid off. So, we're having that first direct effect, that that's just the first piece of the domino. We need to have the full picture to understand how the domino fall in end, if that makes sense.
Perdomo:
It definitely does, because all of these things are interconnected, and they all work in tandem to each other, so we can't just look at one thing.
Ferreira Neto:
It's like talking to my students like we have supply and demand. Especially in this case, both sides of the economy are being affected. So, understanding both sides are important here.
Perdomo:
And who are you asking to participate in the survey? Is it ,like, small businesses, large businesses? Who are you hoping will participate?
Ferreira Neto:
So, we are partnering with the Lee County Economic Development Office, right? And we are reaching out to the three coastal counties. So Lee, Charlotte and Collier. So, we were trying to get as many respondent as possible and we're talking to every business. That local restaurant that just started here, or we can think about the big company that has headquarters elsewhere, but we still have several stores in the area managed by different people. So, we're trying to reach as many people as possible.
Perdomo:
So how often will these surveys related to the pandemic be issued?
Ferreira Neto:
So, we released the first one in the end of March. We're going throughout this summer and maybe longer. We're going to repeat some questions more focused on the coronavirus effect for the summer or a little bit longer, depending on how long, or how prevalent the virus is in the region. With the coronavirus, it's not a definite point in time, it can be a shorter time or a longer time. So we're going to track that down as long as needed.
Perdomo:
You guys have received the results from the first survey. Can you tell me a little bit about the results?
Ferreira Neto:
I think there was two things that struck the most to me. The firm—so we had about 950 firms. So, 30% of those had more than 80% working from home and 20% of firms laying off more than 80%. And this breakup, it doesn't matter in terms of the size of the firm. The key thing here though, is regardless of the size of the firm, their sales revenue and their customer demand reduced by more than 50% for the majority of the firms.
