The dynamics of SMEs: informality and entrepreneurship

Measuring the Unmeasured: Combining Technology and Survey Design to Filter Noise in Self-Reported Business Outcomes

The research team has designed a new electronic survey tool to reduce the high levels of measurement error in data on micro-enterprise sales and profits and tests this new approach in a randomized controlled trial among micro-entrepreneurs in Ghana.  

Research Project
22 Jul 2014

Wage Compression in Labor Markets: The Effect of Fairness Norms

By using a field exeperiment on full-time workers, this study aims to understand the labour market distortions generated by wage compression. 

Research Project
19 Jul 2014

The Urban Geography of Entrepreneurship and Formality in Poor Countries

This investigation examines the role of transportation infrastructure on entrepreneurial growth and formality in metropolitan cities of India. 

Research Project
16 Jul 2014

Can Social Networks Direct Credit to Where it is Needed Most? The Impact of Social Underwriting in Microfinance

This project investigates the idea that microfinance lending staff hired from outside the borrowing communities are not able to identify borrowers with 'high-growth potential' as reliably as the direct peers of the borrowers. 

Research Project
15 Jul 2014

Measuring Quality in India's Brick Industry

Under a broader study of the Indian clay brick industry, this project quantifies the extent to which product quality explains differences in productivity and investigates the determinants of firms' choices of quality.

Research Project
14 Jul 2014

The Cream of the Crop: Targeting High Ability Entrepreneurs Using Microcredit Group Information

This study uses the first-hand knowledge from microcredit clients' social networks to identify those entrepreneurs which are likely to be of high ability and earn higher rates of return.  

Research Project
13 Jul 2014

Barriers to Private Sector Arbitrage in Kenyan Maize Markets

As prices for staple foods fluctuate seasonally, there is room for arbitrage by entrepeneurs. This project investigates potential barriers to arbitrage, such as missing credit markets, government policies, high costs, or entrepreneurial attitudes to develop policy insights into removing these barriers. 

Research Project
11 Jul 2014

Panel Dynamics of Private Enterprises in Myanmar

This project collects micro data on private enterprises in Myanmar in order to facilitate analysis of the dynamics of growth and private sector development. 

Research Project
6 Jul 2014

Trade Associations, Customary Social Networks, and Female Microentrepreneurs in Ghana

Focusing on the tailoring and cosmetology trades in Ghana, this study aims to estimate the private returns to trade association membership for women and identify how these benefits differ for those connected outside the trade association. 

Research Project
5 Jul 2014

Interest Rate Regulation, Credit Rationing and the Competition of Banks in Bangladesh

This project looks at the impact of the interest rate cap for lending in Bangladesh from 2009 to 2012 on the supply of bank loans and firm performance. 

Research Project
4 Jul 2014

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