Surviving Firms of the Syrian Arab Republic : A Rapid Assessment

Salmon, Kinley ; Assaf, Nabila ; Francis, David

World Bank, Washington, DC

关键词: FIRM DEATH;    ENTERPRISE SURVEY;    CONFLICT;    SURVIVAL;    BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT;   

DOI  :  10.1596/1813-9450-8397
RP-ID  :  WPS8397

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

This paper details the results from thefirst comprehensive survey of private firms across majorurban areas in the Syrian Arab Republic -- including Aleppo,Homs, Hama, Latakia, and Damascus -- since the conflictbegan in 2011. This builds on the World Bank'sEnterprise Survey from 2009 and attempts to survey each ofthe 508 firms from 2009 again. The survey highlights themajor challenges facing firms in Syria today, such as accessto electricity, fuel, and water. Yet, loss of workers,managers, and supply chain relationships are also notablysevere.Rebuilding the social and human capital of Syriamay be even more difficult than the bricks and mortar. Thepaper also identifies the ways firms have been affected intheir prices, sales, supply chains, taxation, and costs aswell as how they have adapted in financing and employment.These constraints and impacts are also analyzed at thesubnational level and across sectors. Firms in Aleppo standout for their uniquely difficult challenges and responsesthat are sometimes at odds with the rest of the country.Finally, the paper analyzes firm exit from 2009 to 2017 andfinds that higher productivity firms from 2009 were morelikely to survive, except in Aleppo where the reverse holds.The paper hypothesizes that productive firms facing theparticularly severe destruction in Aleppo may have made adifferent calculation compared with productive firmselsewhere: to use their capabilities to leave rather than touse their capabilities to weather the storm.