This study examines whether size-contingent employment regulations are associated with distortions in firm size distribution and whether such patterns are more consistent with productivity-based selection or with broader constraints on firm scaling. Using 2024 census data covering 86,758 formal...

The use of advanced technologies like artificial intelligence, robotics, or smart devices will go hand in hand with, among others, higher productivity, higher product quality, more exports and better chances to survive any crisis. Better firms tend to use advanced technologies. Information on...

Most firms aspire to longevity, yet only a minority survive more than their initial years. Unsurprisingly, then, business survival has long attracted the interest of many academics. The various factors thought to influence business longevity have generated multiple studies on ownership status,...

A longstanding debate in finance concerns the impact of social responsibility actions on firms' long-term profitability. This study provides a broad analysis on the relationship between ESG, its components, and stock returns. Using a dataset that spans from December 2014 to December 2023, this...

What are the key determinants of firm growth in developing countries? Using firm-level data from the World Bank Enterprise Surveys (WBES) spanning 2010-2024, we examine the impact of three distinct categories of factors on firm growth dynamics: (1) firm-level characteristics, (2) contextual...

This study examined how ESG has influenced credit growth across MENA countries/regions and investigated the extent to which bank size and Islamic banking influence this relationship. Using panel data from 42 listed banks across 10 MENA countries (367 bank-year observations from 2010-2023), the...