Massimiliano Santini

World Bank

Massimiliano Santini is an Economist for the Investment Climate Department at the World Bank. Prior to this, he was an Associate at the OTF Group in Trinidad and Tobago, Consultant at the Government of Kenya, and Financial Officer at the UN World Food Programme in Italy. He received his Bachelor of Science in Economics from the University of Modena in Italy, and his Masters in Public Administration in International Development from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University in 2008.

Efforts to bring informal firms into the formal sector are often based on a view that this will bring benefits to the firms themselves, or at least benefit governments through increasing the tax base.

Using a randomized experiment, the authors show that enhancing the benefits of formalization through personalized assistance induces more firms to formalize.

In April 2014, the Government of Benin launched the entreprenant status, a simplified and free legal regime offered to small informal businesses to enter the formal economy.

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Massimiliano Santini

Researcher's Grant Projects

Researcher's Publications

Does Inducing Informal Firms to Formalize Make Sense? Experimental Evidence from Benin

Enhancing the Benefits of Formalization: Experimental Evidence from the Introduction of the Entreprenant Status in Benin

Finding a Path to Formalization in Benin: Early Results after the Introduction of the Entreprenant Legal Status