Firm Size and the Business Environment : Worldwide Survey Results

Schiffer, Mirjam ; Weder, Beatrice

Washington, DC:World Bank and the International Finance Corporation

关键词: BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT;    BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT;    COLLUSION;    COMPANY;    CORPORATE GOVERNANCE;   

DOI  :  10.1596/978-0-8213-5003-4
RP-ID  :  IFD43

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

The development of the small, and mediumenterprise sector is believed to be crucial for economicgrowth, and poverty alleviation. Those who seek to developthe sector, must consent with the general perception thatsmall- and medium-scale enterprises are at a disadvantage,compared with larger firms. In theory, however, smallerfirms may also have advantages over larger firms. Forinstance, they may be less affected by excessiveregulations, because they can easily slip into informalarrangements. This paper draws on a new private sectorsurvey covering eighty countries, and one territory to studythe question whether business obstacles are related to firmsize. The main finding is that there is indeed a biasagainst small firms. Overall, (that is, for the worldsample) small firms report more problems than medium-sizedfirms, which in turn report more problems than large firms.In particular, smaller firms face significantly moreproblems than larger firms with financing, taxes andregulations, inflation, corruption and street crime. Thusthese impediments should be prime targets for policiesdirected at leveling the playing field. Some of the mostsevere perceived impediments to doing business affect firmsof all sizes, and consequently call for across-the-boardpolicy improvements. In addition to the worldwide analysis,the paper presents an analysis by region, and by individual country.