Small and Medium-sized Enterprises

Are Small Firms Labour Constrained? Experimental Evidence from Ghana

Firms in poor countries are much smaller than firms in rich countries, with the modal firm being a single person, the owner. Meanwhile, youth unemployment and underemployment are widespread.

Research Note
19 Oct 2017

Call Me Maybe: Experimental Evidence on Using Mobile Phones to Survey Microenterprises

Garlick, Orkin and Quinn (2017) run the first randomised controlled trial to compare microenterprise data from surveys of different frequency – weekly or monthly – and medium – phone or in-person.

Research Note
30 Aug 2017

Firm Entry Barriers, Growth Constraints, and Job Creation

Bazzi, Muendler and Rauch (2017) use new data on credit transactions and formal firms in Brazil to identify the effects of a large-scale expansion in credit for small and medium enterprises.

Research Note
8 Aug 2017

Managerial Human Capital in Small and Medium Enterprises

This randomized controlled trial evaluates a business training programme for women-owned small and medium enterprises in urban Uganda, examining both the direct effects on the management and growth of businesses invited to participate, and the indirect effects on the rest of the community.

Research Note
3 Apr 2017

Optimizing Network Referrals to Identify and Recruit Creditworthy Entrepreneurs

Microfinance lenders make limited credit offers because of operational challenges of extensive screening and selection process. We study if optimizing a referral protocol can be used to recruit good entrepreneurs and thus increase access to credit.

Research Note
27 Feb 2017

Exit from Informality: The Stick Treatment

Most firms are informal throughout the developing world; and most small and medium enterprises (SMEs) (60-80%) do not register with tax authorities, lowering the tax base. This remains a persistent phenomenon despite the numerous attempts made to encourage registration.

Research Note
7 Feb 2017

Mitigating Market Frictions by Monitoring Employees in SMEs: A Field Experiment in Kenya's Public Transport Sector (Stage Two)

This project expands a previous intervention that implemented a fleet management system in Kenya’s semi-formal public transport system along three margins: possible negative effects of the tracking system, role of cash incentives in enhancing safety and increasing duration and participation to the pilot.

Research Project
13 Jan 2017

The Cream of the Crop: Identifying High Ability Entrepreneurs through Community Information

This project attempts to utilise community information to identify high-potential entrepreneurs who can transition their micro-enterprises into SMEs. 

Research Project
22 Dec 2016

Contractual Flexibility, Firm Growth, and Information Asymmetries in Microfinance: Experimental Evidence from Bangladesh (Stage One)

The central aim of this project is to identify the impact of introducing a flexible loan contract on the credit market.

Research Project
22 Dec 2016

Why do Some Micro-entrepreneurs do Better than Others? The Role of Innovation in Marketing Practices in Driving Performance (Stage Two)

This project aims to develop a research programme that investigates the role of innovation in micro-enterprises’ marketing practices in driving performance.

Research Project
22 Dec 2016

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