Developing countries are deindustrializing at earlier stages of development than experienced by advanced economies. Is this trend symptomatic of inefficiency? If so, what are the welfare costs? This paper...
This paper characterizes the firm size distribution by exploiting establishment-level censuses covering both formal and informal firms in Sub-Saharan Africa. The paper finds a "missing middle" in the employment-based...
This paper uses a novel firm-level dataset and finds a missing middle in the employment based firm size distribution in four sub-Saharan African countries. This missing middle hinges on the inclusion of...
What are the effects of a large temporary shock to the economy such as a temporary lockdown in response to a pandemic? Are the effects propagated and made persistent by firms’ deteriorating balance sheets...
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The economic impact of COVID-19 is unprecedented in size and scope. It has quickly evolved from a health emergency into an employment crisis. It also has far-reaching implications for workers beyond the...
This paper uses comprehensive and comparable firm-level manufacturing censuses from four Sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries to examine the extent, costs, and nature of within-industry resource misallocation...
What major insights have emerged from development economics in the past decade, and how do they matter for the World Bank? This challenging question was recently posed by World Bank Group President David...
This paper studies the interaction between barriers to firm entry and distortions to allocative efficiency in a standard model of firm dynamics. It derives a strategy to infer entry barriers based on cross-country...
Argentina is characterized by low levels of private credit and persistent labor market rigidities. Furthermore, financial development remained stagnant in Argentina even during episodes of fast economic...
This paper proposes a quantitative model of endogenous firm dynamics to study growth acceleration episodes triggered by reforms. It finds that reversals of entry distortions lead to persistent growth in...
This paper studies the prevalence and consequences of size-dependent tax enforcement and compliance. The identification strategy uses the ranking of industries' average firm size in the United States as...
Georgia’s reforms over the last two decades have paved the way for the country’s economic transformation by the creation of better jobs and substantial poverty reduction. Despite these positive developments...
Georgia’s reforms over the last two decades have paved the way for the country’s economic transformation by the creation of better jobs and substantial poverty reduction. Despite these positive developments...
This paper proposes a multi-product model of firm dynamics to understand the implications of allocative distortions for the decisions of firms to enter, exit, and supply products to the market. These margins...
This paper uses comprehensive and comparable firm-level manufacturing census data from four Sub-Saharan African countries to examine the extent, costs, and nature of within-industry resource misallocation...
Financial crises are associated with severe economic contractions and lasting deteriorations in labor market conditions. Despite the close connection between financial crises and sustained rises in unemployment...