This brief outlines how the Small Business Administration's long-standing 7(a) loan program can build upon the lessons learned during the COVID-19 pandemic to strengthen its operations and impact.
As iron ore, copper, and lithium producers, Brazil and Chile have a competitive advantage in the global energy transition. This brief outlines the countries' opportunities to profit from their exports while reducing their domestic consumption of fossil fuels.
The authors review the impact of the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), a government initiative that allowed small businesses to apply for low-interest loans during the COVID-19 pandemic. While the PPP helped cover employment-related expenses and mitigated unemployment for some businesses, it remained inaccessible to others, they conclude.
With its significant reserves of critical metals and other geographic advantages, Chile is well positioned to help enable the energy transition. The authors discuss the country's leveraging of its copper and lithium resources and its growing trade with China.
As a potential producer and exporter of green hydrogen — a fuel that can be burned without producing greenhouse gas emissions — Chile is at the forefront of the global energy transition. However, becoming a major exporter of green hydrogen is not without its challenges, writes the author.
While academic and popular debates tend to focus on differential benefits and costs of trade across countries or industries, this brief highlights winners and losers at the level of individual firms. The authors demonstrate that preferential liberalization produces concentrated benefits among a relatively small number of very large and productive firms.
Pablo M. Pinto, Leonardo Baccini, Stephen WeymouthNovember 21, 2017