The Policy Research Working Paper Series disseminates the findings of work in progress to encoura... more The Policy Research Working Paper Series disseminates the findings of work in progress to encourage the exchange of ideas about development issues. An objective of the series is to get the findings out quickly, even if the presentations are less than fully polished. The papers carry the names of the authors and should be cited accordingly. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in this paper are entirely those of the authors. They do not necessarily represent the views of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development/World Bank and its affiliated organizations, or those of the Executive Directors of the World Bank or the governments they represent.
The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed here do not necessarily reflect the view... more The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed here do not necessarily reflect the views of the Executive Directors of The World Bank or the governments they represent. The World Bank does not guarantee the accuracy of the data included in this work. The boundaries, colors, denominations, and other information shown on any map in this work do not imply any judgment on the part of The World Bank concerning the legal status of any territory or the endorsement or acceptance of such boundaries. Rights and Permissions The material in this publication is copyrighted. Copying and/or transmitting portions or all of this work without permission may be a violation of applicable law. The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development / The World Bank encourages dissemination of its work and will normally grant permission to reproduce portions of the work promptly.
The Lessons from DECFP Impact Evaluations ISSUE 22 Our latest note shows how the rich administrat... more The Lessons from DECFP Impact Evaluations ISSUE 22 Our latest note shows how the rich administrative data already collected by many governments can be used to evaluate a policy reform, and provides an example where impact evaluation reveals that a policy didn't work as well as intended.
The Lessons from DECFP Impact Evaluations ISSUE 24 Our latest note highlights the results from a ... more The Lessons from DECFP Impact Evaluations ISSUE 24 Our latest note highlights the results from a collaboration with a state government in Brazil that was designed to test different policy options for bringing informal firms into the formal sector.
As in most economies, micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in emerging markets are widely... more As in most economies, micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in emerging markets are widely believed to be the engine of growth across. Over the last decade, many researchers and academics have tried to analyze the issue of MSME access to finance, emphasizing their dependence on credit and cash flows. This study presents a new approach to the estimation of the unmet demand for financing from MSMEs in developing countries. Importantly, it also describes the potential implications for the public-sector bodies, private sector financial institutions, and technology providers. The present research adds significant value to the repository of data in the MSME space, and opens new opportunities for further investigation. It estimates both supply of and demand for MSME finance on a global scale, which has never been done in a comprehensive way. This approach estimates MSME equilibrium lending in developed economies according to the industry, age, and size categories, and applies this b...
VoxDevLits are wiki-inspired literature reviews that aim to summarise the evidence base on narrow... more VoxDevLits are wiki-inspired literature reviews that aim to summarise the evidence base on narrowly defined topics related to development economics. Each Lit is written by a community of scholars working on the specific topic addressed in the review. They are intended for both policymakers and researchers. We aim to describe what we have learned from research and to highlight the important questions for which evidence is lacking. The Lits are living documents that will be updated several times each year. All published versions will be available on the VoxDev website so that scholars can cite the reviews with confidence that the version cited will be accessible in the future.
Collaborations between science and industry are becoming increasingly important for the innovatio... more Collaborations between science and industry are becoming increasingly important for the innovation process, in part because many new inventions are directly rooted in science, such as biotechnology, information technology, and new materials. Yet there are several barriers that inhibit collaboration, including financing constraints, information asymmetries which prevent researchers and firms interacting, and transaction costs in negotiating collaboration agreements. Government subsidies may provide incentive to seek out these connections and may foster increased interaction between firms and scientific units. While such policies have been used for some time in the United States (U.S.), Western Europe, and Japan, they are now also becoming common in middle and high income countries that are attempting to close the gap with the most developed countries through innovation. Following a request from NCBiR, the World Bank conducted an impact evaluation of the in-tech program. In-tech fundi...
This volume is a product of the staff of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Developmen... more This volume is a product of the staff of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development / The World Bank. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in this paper do not necessarily reflect the views of the Executive Directors of The World Bank or the governments they represent. The World Bank does not guarantee the accuracy of the data included in this work. The boundaries, colors, denominations, and other information shown on any map in this work do not imply any judgment on the part of The World Bank concerning the legal status of any territory or the endorsement or acceptance of such boundaries.
The Policy Research Working Paper Series disseminates the findings of work in progress to encoura... more The Policy Research Working Paper Series disseminates the findings of work in progress to encourage the exchange of ideas about development issues. An objective of the series is to get the findings out quickly, even if the presentations are less than fully polished. The papers carry the names of the authors and should be cited accordingly. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in this paper are entirely those of the authors. They do not necessarily represent the views of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development/World Bank and its affiliated organizations, or those of the Executive Directors of the World Bank or the governments they represent.
The Policy Research Working Paper Series disseminates the findings of work in progress to encoura... more The Policy Research Working Paper Series disseminates the findings of work in progress to encourage the exchange of ideas about development issues. An objective of the series is to get the findings out quickly, even if the presentations are less than fully polished. The papers carry the names of the authors and should be cited accordingly. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in this paper are entirely those of the authors. They do not necessarily represent the views of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development/World Bank and its affiliated organizations, or those of the Executive Directors of the World Bank or the governments they represent.
Using a panel of administrative data and regression discontinuity analysis, this paper examines h... more Using a panel of administrative data and regression discontinuity analysis, this paper examines how the introduction of preferential tax regimes for Georgian micro-and small businesses in 2010 affected formal firm creation and tax compliance. The results show that the new tax regime for micro-businesses increased the number of newly registered firms by 27-41 % below the eligibility threshold during the first year of the reform, but not in subsequent years. We do not find an effect of the new tax regime for small businesses on formal firm creation in any year. Policy makers are often also concerned about abuse risks stemming from differentiated tax treatment of micro-and small businesses. The analysis in this paper reveals reduced tax compliance among small taxpayers for multiple years after the reform and among micro-business taxpayers only during the first year of the reform.
We test whether managerial human capital has a first order effect on the performance and growth o... more We test whether managerial human capital has a first order effect on the performance and growth of small enterprises in emerging markets. In a randomized control trial in Puebla, Mexico, we randomly assigned 150 out of 432 small and medium size enterprises to receive subsidized consulting services, while the remaining 267 enterprises served as a control group that did not receive any subsidized training. Treatment enterprises were matched with one of nine local consulting firms and met with their consultants once a week for four hours over a one year period. Results from a follow-up survey, conducted after the intervention, show that the consulting services had a large impact on the performance of the enterprises in the treatment group: monthly sales went up by about 80 percent; similarly, profits and productivity increased by 120 percent compared to the control group. We also see a significant increase in the entrepreneurial spirit index for the treatment group, a set of questions designed to illicit the SME owners' confidence in their ability to manage their business and deal with any future difficulties. However, we do not find any significant increase in the number of workers employed in the treatment group.
The EH Clio Lab WP series disseminates research developed by lab researchers and students quickly... more The EH Clio Lab WP series disseminates research developed by lab researchers and students quickly in order to generate comments and suggestions for revision or improvement before publication. They may have been presented at conferences or workshops already, but will not yet have been published in journals. The EH Clio Lab is a research group that applies economic tools-theory as well as quantitative tools applied in economics-to the study of economic history. The current two main research topics: (i) "The Republic in Numbers" and (ii) papers on more specific historical issues and problems, using data both from the República and other sources. The latter consists in the collection and construction of a large number of statistical series about Chile`s development process during the past two centuries.
The Policy Research Working Paper Series disseminates the findings of work in progress to encoura... more The Policy Research Working Paper Series disseminates the findings of work in progress to encourage the exchange of ideas about development issues. An objective of the series is to get the findings out quickly, even if the presentations are less than fully polished. The papers carry the names of the authors and should be cited accordingly. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in this paper are entirely those of the authors. They do not necessarily represent the views of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development/World Bank and its affiliated organizations, or those of the Executive Directors of the World Bank or the governments they represent.
published by Elsevier. It is posted here by agreement between them. Changes resulting from the pu... more published by Elsevier. It is posted here by agreement between them. Changes resulting from the publishing process-such as editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms-may not be reflected in this version of the text.
American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, 2009
We present new evidence on the randomization methods used in existing experiments, and new simula... more We present new evidence on the randomization methods used in existing experiments, and new simulations comparing these methods. We find that many papers do not describe the randomization in detail, implying that better reporting is needed. Our simulations suggest that in samples of 300 or more, the different methods perform similarly. However, for very persistent outcome variables, and in smaller samples, pair-wise matching and stratification perform best and appear to dominate the rerandomization methods commonly used in practice. The simulations also point to specific recommendations for which variables to balance on, and for which controls to include in the ex post analysis. (JEL C83, C93, O12)
The Policy Research Working Paper Series disseminates the findings of work in progress to encoura... more The Policy Research Working Paper Series disseminates the findings of work in progress to encourage the exchange of ideas about development issues. An objective of the series is to get the findings out quickly, even if the presentations are less than fully polished. The papers carry the names of the authors and should be cited accordingly. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in this paper are entirely those of the authors. They do not necessarily represent the views of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development/World Bank and its affiliated organizations, or those of the Executive Directors of the World Bank or the governments they represent.
The Policy Research Working Paper Series disseminates the findings of work in progress to encoura... more The Policy Research Working Paper Series disseminates the findings of work in progress to encourage the exchange of ideas about development issues. An objective of the series is to get the findings out quickly, even if the presentations are less than fully polished. The papers carry the names of the authors and should be cited accordingly. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in this paper are entirely those of the authors. They do not necessarily represent the views of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development/World Bank and its affiliated organizations, or those of the Executive Directors of the World Bank or the governments they represent.
This paper examines the effects of providing financial services to low-income individuals on entr... more This paper examines the effects of providing financial services to low-income individuals on entrepreneurial activity, employment, and the income levels of men and women. We exploit cross-time and cross-municipality variation in the opening of Banco Azteca in Mexico to measure these effects with a difference-in-difference strategy. This bank opened over 800 branches simultaneously in 2002, focusing on low-income clients. Our results show that this led to an increase in the number of informal business owners among men and to an increase in wage-earning opportunities for women. Average income levels also increased, with this increase being twofold higher for women than for men.
The Policy Research Working Paper Series disseminates the findings of work in progress to encoura... more The Policy Research Working Paper Series disseminates the findings of work in progress to encourage the exchange of ideas about development issues. An objective of the series is to get the findings out quickly, even if the presentations are less than fully polished. The papers carry the names of the authors and should be cited accordingly. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in this paper are entirely those of the authors. They do not necessarily represent the views of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development/World Bank and its affiliated organizations, or those of the Executive Directors of the World Bank or the governments they represent.
The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed here do not necessarily reflect the view... more The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed here do not necessarily reflect the views of the Executive Directors of The World Bank or the governments they represent. The World Bank does not guarantee the accuracy of the data included in this work. The boundaries, colors, denominations, and other information shown on any map in this work do not imply any judgment on the part of The World Bank concerning the legal status of any territory or the endorsement or acceptance of such boundaries. Rights and Permissions The material in this publication is copyrighted. Copying and/or transmitting portions or all of this work without permission may be a violation of applicable law. The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development / The World Bank encourages dissemination of its work and will normally grant permission to reproduce portions of the work promptly.
The Lessons from DECFP Impact Evaluations ISSUE 22 Our latest note shows how the rich administrat... more The Lessons from DECFP Impact Evaluations ISSUE 22 Our latest note shows how the rich administrative data already collected by many governments can be used to evaluate a policy reform, and provides an example where impact evaluation reveals that a policy didn't work as well as intended.
The Lessons from DECFP Impact Evaluations ISSUE 24 Our latest note highlights the results from a ... more The Lessons from DECFP Impact Evaluations ISSUE 24 Our latest note highlights the results from a collaboration with a state government in Brazil that was designed to test different policy options for bringing informal firms into the formal sector.
As in most economies, micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in emerging markets are widely... more As in most economies, micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in emerging markets are widely believed to be the engine of growth across. Over the last decade, many researchers and academics have tried to analyze the issue of MSME access to finance, emphasizing their dependence on credit and cash flows. This study presents a new approach to the estimation of the unmet demand for financing from MSMEs in developing countries. Importantly, it also describes the potential implications for the public-sector bodies, private sector financial institutions, and technology providers. The present research adds significant value to the repository of data in the MSME space, and opens new opportunities for further investigation. It estimates both supply of and demand for MSME finance on a global scale, which has never been done in a comprehensive way. This approach estimates MSME equilibrium lending in developed economies according to the industry, age, and size categories, and applies this b...
VoxDevLits are wiki-inspired literature reviews that aim to summarise the evidence base on narrow... more VoxDevLits are wiki-inspired literature reviews that aim to summarise the evidence base on narrowly defined topics related to development economics. Each Lit is written by a community of scholars working on the specific topic addressed in the review. They are intended for both policymakers and researchers. We aim to describe what we have learned from research and to highlight the important questions for which evidence is lacking. The Lits are living documents that will be updated several times each year. All published versions will be available on the VoxDev website so that scholars can cite the reviews with confidence that the version cited will be accessible in the future.
Collaborations between science and industry are becoming increasingly important for the innovatio... more Collaborations between science and industry are becoming increasingly important for the innovation process, in part because many new inventions are directly rooted in science, such as biotechnology, information technology, and new materials. Yet there are several barriers that inhibit collaboration, including financing constraints, information asymmetries which prevent researchers and firms interacting, and transaction costs in negotiating collaboration agreements. Government subsidies may provide incentive to seek out these connections and may foster increased interaction between firms and scientific units. While such policies have been used for some time in the United States (U.S.), Western Europe, and Japan, they are now also becoming common in middle and high income countries that are attempting to close the gap with the most developed countries through innovation. Following a request from NCBiR, the World Bank conducted an impact evaluation of the in-tech program. In-tech fundi...
This volume is a product of the staff of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Developmen... more This volume is a product of the staff of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development / The World Bank. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in this paper do not necessarily reflect the views of the Executive Directors of The World Bank or the governments they represent. The World Bank does not guarantee the accuracy of the data included in this work. The boundaries, colors, denominations, and other information shown on any map in this work do not imply any judgment on the part of The World Bank concerning the legal status of any territory or the endorsement or acceptance of such boundaries.
The Policy Research Working Paper Series disseminates the findings of work in progress to encoura... more The Policy Research Working Paper Series disseminates the findings of work in progress to encourage the exchange of ideas about development issues. An objective of the series is to get the findings out quickly, even if the presentations are less than fully polished. The papers carry the names of the authors and should be cited accordingly. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in this paper are entirely those of the authors. They do not necessarily represent the views of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development/World Bank and its affiliated organizations, or those of the Executive Directors of the World Bank or the governments they represent.
The Policy Research Working Paper Series disseminates the findings of work in progress to encoura... more The Policy Research Working Paper Series disseminates the findings of work in progress to encourage the exchange of ideas about development issues. An objective of the series is to get the findings out quickly, even if the presentations are less than fully polished. The papers carry the names of the authors and should be cited accordingly. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in this paper are entirely those of the authors. They do not necessarily represent the views of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development/World Bank and its affiliated organizations, or those of the Executive Directors of the World Bank or the governments they represent.
Using a panel of administrative data and regression discontinuity analysis, this paper examines h... more Using a panel of administrative data and regression discontinuity analysis, this paper examines how the introduction of preferential tax regimes for Georgian micro-and small businesses in 2010 affected formal firm creation and tax compliance. The results show that the new tax regime for micro-businesses increased the number of newly registered firms by 27-41 % below the eligibility threshold during the first year of the reform, but not in subsequent years. We do not find an effect of the new tax regime for small businesses on formal firm creation in any year. Policy makers are often also concerned about abuse risks stemming from differentiated tax treatment of micro-and small businesses. The analysis in this paper reveals reduced tax compliance among small taxpayers for multiple years after the reform and among micro-business taxpayers only during the first year of the reform.
We test whether managerial human capital has a first order effect on the performance and growth o... more We test whether managerial human capital has a first order effect on the performance and growth of small enterprises in emerging markets. In a randomized control trial in Puebla, Mexico, we randomly assigned 150 out of 432 small and medium size enterprises to receive subsidized consulting services, while the remaining 267 enterprises served as a control group that did not receive any subsidized training. Treatment enterprises were matched with one of nine local consulting firms and met with their consultants once a week for four hours over a one year period. Results from a follow-up survey, conducted after the intervention, show that the consulting services had a large impact on the performance of the enterprises in the treatment group: monthly sales went up by about 80 percent; similarly, profits and productivity increased by 120 percent compared to the control group. We also see a significant increase in the entrepreneurial spirit index for the treatment group, a set of questions designed to illicit the SME owners' confidence in their ability to manage their business and deal with any future difficulties. However, we do not find any significant increase in the number of workers employed in the treatment group.
The EH Clio Lab WP series disseminates research developed by lab researchers and students quickly... more The EH Clio Lab WP series disseminates research developed by lab researchers and students quickly in order to generate comments and suggestions for revision or improvement before publication. They may have been presented at conferences or workshops already, but will not yet have been published in journals. The EH Clio Lab is a research group that applies economic tools-theory as well as quantitative tools applied in economics-to the study of economic history. The current two main research topics: (i) "The Republic in Numbers" and (ii) papers on more specific historical issues and problems, using data both from the República and other sources. The latter consists in the collection and construction of a large number of statistical series about Chile`s development process during the past two centuries.
The Policy Research Working Paper Series disseminates the findings of work in progress to encoura... more The Policy Research Working Paper Series disseminates the findings of work in progress to encourage the exchange of ideas about development issues. An objective of the series is to get the findings out quickly, even if the presentations are less than fully polished. The papers carry the names of the authors and should be cited accordingly. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in this paper are entirely those of the authors. They do not necessarily represent the views of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development/World Bank and its affiliated organizations, or those of the Executive Directors of the World Bank or the governments they represent.
published by Elsevier. It is posted here by agreement between them. Changes resulting from the pu... more published by Elsevier. It is posted here by agreement between them. Changes resulting from the publishing process-such as editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms-may not be reflected in this version of the text.
American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, 2009
We present new evidence on the randomization methods used in existing experiments, and new simula... more We present new evidence on the randomization methods used in existing experiments, and new simulations comparing these methods. We find that many papers do not describe the randomization in detail, implying that better reporting is needed. Our simulations suggest that in samples of 300 or more, the different methods perform similarly. However, for very persistent outcome variables, and in smaller samples, pair-wise matching and stratification perform best and appear to dominate the rerandomization methods commonly used in practice. The simulations also point to specific recommendations for which variables to balance on, and for which controls to include in the ex post analysis. (JEL C83, C93, O12)
The Policy Research Working Paper Series disseminates the findings of work in progress to encoura... more The Policy Research Working Paper Series disseminates the findings of work in progress to encourage the exchange of ideas about development issues. An objective of the series is to get the findings out quickly, even if the presentations are less than fully polished. The papers carry the names of the authors and should be cited accordingly. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in this paper are entirely those of the authors. They do not necessarily represent the views of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development/World Bank and its affiliated organizations, or those of the Executive Directors of the World Bank or the governments they represent.
The Policy Research Working Paper Series disseminates the findings of work in progress to encoura... more The Policy Research Working Paper Series disseminates the findings of work in progress to encourage the exchange of ideas about development issues. An objective of the series is to get the findings out quickly, even if the presentations are less than fully polished. The papers carry the names of the authors and should be cited accordingly. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in this paper are entirely those of the authors. They do not necessarily represent the views of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development/World Bank and its affiliated organizations, or those of the Executive Directors of the World Bank or the governments they represent.
This paper examines the effects of providing financial services to low-income individuals on entr... more This paper examines the effects of providing financial services to low-income individuals on entrepreneurial activity, employment, and the income levels of men and women. We exploit cross-time and cross-municipality variation in the opening of Banco Azteca in Mexico to measure these effects with a difference-in-difference strategy. This bank opened over 800 branches simultaneously in 2002, focusing on low-income clients. Our results show that this led to an increase in the number of informal business owners among men and to an increase in wage-earning opportunities for women. Average income levels also increased, with this increase being twofold higher for women than for men.
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Papers by Miriam Bruhn