Faculty News

Harper-Anderson cited in NBC news article on the impact of COVID-19 on small business and gaps in recovery funding

Wilder School Professor Elsie Harper-Anderson was referenced in the article “For richer and poorer, Uncle Sam's coronavirus response widened the gulf” written by NBC News reporter Jonathan Allen. In the article, Harper-Anderson who is studying the impact of the coronavirus on Black workers and businesses in Virginia, said that for reasons including racism in lending, many Black business owners don't have the existing relationships with banks that are an important factor in getting paycheck protection loans.

"People don't even go to banks and apply anymore because historically they have not been able to go down that road," she said. "African Americans tend to be less likely to go to banks. They start smaller businesses — they start with their own cash, loans from friends and family, credit cards, all those kinds of things." Read the full story.