Beck, Demirguc-Kunt, and Levine explore the relationship between the relative size of the small and medium enterprise (SME) sector, economic growth, and poverty using a new database on the share of SME labor in the total manufacturing labor force. Using a sample of 76 countries, they find a...

Using a survey dataset of Chinese rural households, we find that access to external finance is positively associated with the decision to become entrepreneur, the initial investment for microenterprises and the use of external finance. Also, we find that the use of informal finance is positively...