Small and Medium-sized Enterprises

This case study of the cross-border investment of female entrepreneurs in the East African Community region aims to assess the impact of regional integration on the expansion of female-run enterprises and identify constraints on the growth of these enterprises.

Zambia has been implementing market-based financial sector reforms since 1992, and is currently implementing phase II of its Financial Sector Development Plan. There is some evidence that these reforms have improved the efficiency of bank operations and boosted industrial production. There are still concerns, however, that Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) have only limited access to bank credit at high cost, and that this has constrained their ability to grow and increase productivity.

This detailed study of the Indian brick industry allows for reliable estimates of firm productivity, disentangling competing explanations of variations in revenue and output across firms such as capital misallocation, market power, and adjustment costs.