The COVID-19 pandemic has caused substantial disruption in social and economic activity since March 2020. The New Zealand Government reacted early, introducing stringent lockdowns to restrict the spread of the virus. At the same time, it introduced a series of economic policies designed to support the health response. The largest was the COVID-19 Wage Subsidy Scheme (WSS).

This paper analyses the impacts of the WSS on both firm and worker level economic outcomes. The authors adopt a ‘doubly-robust’ estimation approach, that uses propensity score methods both to match subsidy receiving firms to similar non-subsidised firms, and to weight the outcomes analysis. The analysis focuses on the first four WSS-waves: the March 2020 (Original), Extension, Resurgence and March 2021 waves.