test which government actions work in getting informal firms to register. Firms were randomized to a control group or one …, and a significant but small increase in formalization from inspections. Our LATE estimates of the impact of actually … results show most informal firms won't formalize unless forced to do so, suggesting formality offers little private benefit to …

find little evidence for most of the channels through which formalization is hypothesized to benefit firms, although …The majority of firms in most developing countries are informal. We conducted a field experiment in Sri Lanka which … provided incentives for informal firms to formalize. Offering only information about the registration process and reimbursement …

process. Yet, formalization has many facets and shades on the business and labor fronts, and firms may not be able or willing …Too often, academics and policy makers interpret formality as a binary choice and formalization as an irreversible … to formalize all at once. This paper explores the joint process of business and labor formalization, using a unique panel …

Using a novel panel survey of enterprises in Myanmar, we compare the performance of manufacturing firms by three … different informality definitions. The first is binary, based on whether firms pay taxes. The second captures five categories of …'s workers. Depending on the informality concept used, formalization has positive, insignificant, and negative performance …

This paper examines how firms in an emerging economy are affected by violence due to drug trafficking. Employing rich … utilization. Resilience to violence differs widely across different types of employment within firms and across firms with … of the most affected firms and the channels through which they are affected. …

administrative costs of envelope wages in small versus large firms. …

competition and demand for Chilean exports. Our main finding is that increasing manufacturing import competition implied a … significant rise in labor informality in more exposed local markets, especially among young and unskilled workers. These groups …

This study explores the nexus of digitalization, formalization, and global value chain (GVC) participation, providing … digitalization on enterprise formalization and GVC participation have been inferred without sufficient empirical support, while few … studies have examined the reciprocal impact of formalization on GVC participation. Utilizing probit and tobit estimations with …

studies the impact of violent conflict on firms, exploiting this period of heightened violence in Mexico commonly referred to … controls for observable and unobservable differences across cities and firms as well as for product-specific business cycles …-intensity within firms. It also deters domestic, but not international, trade. The effect of the violence shock on firms is very …

Purpose - This study investigates how ICT adoption enhances the innovativeness of informal firms in West Africa, using …, these effects varied markedly between Ghana and Nigeria. Firms' spending on R&D, firm giving its employees the chance to … could help firms to introduce innovations into their companies in two West African countries, namely: Ghana and Nigeria …