Replication Data for: Financial Performance of Italian Food and Beverage SMEs and Large Enterprises during the COVID-19 Pandemic (2019–2022)

Financial Performance of Italian Food and Beverage SMEs and Large Enterprises during the COVID-19 Pandemic (2019–2022) This dataset supports the research article “A Study on the Mid-Term Financial Impact of COVID-19 on Food and Beverage Processing SMEs: Evidence from Italy” (Garbelli, 2025, under review). It contains panel data for 1,600 small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and a comparative group of large enterprises (250+ employees) operating in the Italian food and beverage processing sector. The data span the period 2019–2022, capturing pre-pandemic conditions, the core pandemic crisis (2020–2021), and the early post-pandemic phase (2022). Variables include standard financial indicators: Return on Equity (ROE), Return on Investment (ROI), EBITDA, and Debt Ratio. All values were extracted from the AIDA Bureau van Dijk database and harmonized using standardized cleaning protocols. Outliers were removed based on the standard deviation method to ensure robustness. Key features: ROE, ROI, EBITDA (total and per employee) Debt Ratio (Liabilities to Equity) Firm size classification: Micro, Small, Medium, and Large Geographical breakdown: North, Center, South & Islands of Italy This dataset was used to conduct a Difference-in-Differences (DID) analysis comparing SMEs and large enterprises, with the aim of isolating the financial effects of the COVID-19 shock net of macroeconomic trends. EBITDA values for large enterprises were initially expressed in thousands of euros and have been converted to absolute values for comparability. All company names and identifiers have been removed or anonymized to ensure compliance with data protection regulations. The dataset is provided in .xlsx format and includes accompanying metadata and variable definitions in a README file.