This paper documents that senior plant managers in less-developed countries spend more time dealing with government rules and regulations than their counterparts in richer countries. These facts are interpreted through the lens of a span-of-control growth model, in which top managers run...

This paper estimates the effectiveness of government support to the private sector during the COVID-19 pandemic in El Salvador and Georgia using firm-level data collected before and during the pandemic. The two countries are selected because eligibility criteria for support involved pre-pandemic...

This paper documents that small plants spend a higher fraction of their output on bribery than big plants. I develop a one-sector growth model in which size-dependent distortions, bribery opportunities, and different plant sizes coexist. Two sets of exercises are conducted to quantify the...

This paper estimates the effectiveness of government support to the private sector during the COVID-19 pandemic in El Salvador and Georgia using firm-level data collected before and during the pandemic. The two countries are selected because eligibility criteria for support involved pre-pandemic...