The exit of businesses in 47 countries during 2021

Abstract

The Covid-19 pandemic led many entrepreneurs to exit their business, and it is relevant to study their opinion about the effect of the pandemic on their decision to end their activity. This study assesses the views of those entrepreneurs based on surveys conducted in 47 countries in 2021 for the Global Monitoring of Entrepreneurship report. It evaluates four indicators that summarize the positive and negative reasons for exit. 58% of entrepreneurs ended their activity for negative reasons unrelated to the pandemic. Nearly 24% were forced to close of business be-cause of the negative effects of the pandemic. Only one in six of these entrepreneurs cited positive reasons for going out of business.