In many low- and middle-income countries most micro and small enterprises (MSEs) struggle to upgrade into medium-sized and large enterprises. An extensive literature offers manifold explanations for the phenomenon but no conclusive answer on what the most important factors for MSE upgrading are:...

Doing Business, the World Bank's annual flagship publication, claims that payoffs for women from regulatory reform are large despite a lack of explicit focus on social factors affecting the economic participation of women. Taking off from our previous findings that discrimination hindering...