This paper assesses the medium-run effects of government support to firms during the COVID-19 crisis and whether the effectiveness of this support varied with its timing. Using data from three rounds of the World Bank's Enterprise Surveys COVID-19 Follow-up Surveys carried out between May 2020...

Identifying the determinants of entrepreneurship is an important research and policy goal, especially in emerging market economies where lack of capital and supporting infrastructure often imposes stringent constraints on business growth. This paper studies the impact of a comprehensive business...

Firms in developing countries are widely known to face many constraints, from lack of access to finance and physical capital to poor infrastructure. The course seems to have been particularly effective at promoting business growth for those entrepreneurs who exhibited higher levels of financial...

The second in new series of impact notes highlights an example of ex-past evolution of regulatory reform. While ideally one would like to build in an evolution strategy before a new policy is introduced, much can still be achieved ex-past in cases where existing data collection covers those...

Tax rates and the administrative costs of tax compliance are key concerns of business. Studies within and across countries suggest that lowering corporate tax rates can increase investment, reduce tax evasion by formal firms, promote the creation of formal firms, and ultimately raise sales and...

This report describes a baseline measure of the financial capability of the Mexican adult population. Chapter one describes the Mexican context and the rationale for the financial capability study. Chapter two describes key findings related to daily money management and financial planning...

This note shows how the rich administrative data collected by many governments can be used to evaluate a policy reform, and provides an example where impact evaluation reveals that a policy didn t work as well as intended

This study uses administrative data to evaluate the impact of Minas Fácil Expresso, a programme in the State of Minas Gerais, Brazil, which expanded a business start-up simplification programme to more remote municipalities. Using difference-in-differences with 56 months of registration data...

This paper argues that legislative malapportionment, denoting a discrepancy between the share of legislative seats and the share of population held by electoral districts, serves as a tool for pre-democratic elites to preserve their political power and economic interests after a transition to...