RAPID: Small Businesses and Access to Legal Resources During the COVID-19 Pandemic

COVID-19大流行严重影响了各种规模的企业，特别是小企业企业家。除了经济损失之外，小企业往往无法获得法律资源，无法帮助它们应对疫情带来的问题并协助经济复苏。该项目将通过了解小企业所面临的法律挑战，研究小企业获得法律咨询的途径。此外，该研究还将评估在COVID-19大流行期间向小企业传播法律信息的不同方法的有效性。该项目将采用混合方法研究小企业在经济动荡时期获得法律资源的能力。首先，该项目将采用访谈和调查技术，从不同人口群体和行业的小企业主那里获得有关他们面临的法律问题的数据。其次，采用实验设计，该项目将检验随机干预措施，这些干预措施旨在通过低成本手段提供法律信息，使缺乏代表的小企业企业家能够自助。调查结果将有助于深入了解小企业主在2019冠状病毒病大流行期间利用和理解法律的能力。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The COVID-19 pandemic has severely affected businesses of all sizes, particularly small business entrepreneurs. In addition to economic harms, small businesses often lack access to legal resources that would help them navigate issues raised by the pandemic and assist in economic recovery. This project will examine small business’ access to legal advice by generating knowledge about legal challenges they face. As well, this research will assess the effectiveness of different methods of disseminating legal information to small businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic. This project will incorporate a mixed-methods approach to study small business’ ability to access legal resources during times of economic turmoil. First, the project will employ interview and survey techniques to generate data from small business owners across different demographic groups and industries regarding legal issues they face. Second, using an experimental design the project will examine randomized interventions designed to provide legal information through low-cost means that enable self-help to small business entrepreneurs who lack representation. Findings will provide insight into the ability of small business entrepreneurs to utilize and understand the law during the COVID-19 pandemic.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.