Sectoral segregation is often used to explain a large part of a well-documented gender earnings gap in business profits. Women tend to sort into different sectors than men, and the sectors dominated by women tend to be less profitable. This paper investigates the horizontal dimension of sectoral...

Is there a mindset gap holding women back in business? Can entrepreneurship training instill a set of attitudes, behaviors, and strategies that are thought to underpin success in business such as motivation, perseverance, and self-confidence? This study conducted two randomized controlled trials...

Business practices and performance vary widely among local peers. This paper identifies key determinants of such heterogeneity among a sample of small urban retail shops in Indonesia, and experimentally tests whether learning about the best practices of local peers is valuable for business...

This report aims to deepen the understanding of barriers to and incentives for the acceptance and use of electronic payments, from the perspective of micro, small and medium retailers (merchants). Developing and accelerating acceptance of electronic payments by these merchants is essential to...

This note draws from an emerging literature on firm informality as well as data collected on micro enterprises and informal firms as part of the World Bank's enterprise survey initiative for Kenya. The purpose of the note is to assess the main constraints facing informal firms, identify patterns...

Jim Yong Kim, President of the World Bank Group discusses conflicts that have caused a devastating amount of violence and destruction, severely affecting the livelihoods of millions of people, and creating destabilizing effects at the global level. He talks about the World Bank Group's new...

The importance of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to economic development and job creation is increasingly recognized across the world. With an expected 58 percent of gross value added in 2012, SMEs are perceived to be the backbone of the economy especially within the European Union (EU)....

This report gives an overview of the key results from the analysis of the data collected in a survey conducted in October and November 2012 by the Austrian Institute for small and medium enterprise (SME) research on behalf of the World Bank center for financial reporting reform (CFRR). The...

As in most economies, micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in emerging markets are widely believed to be the engine of growth across. Over the last decade, many researchers and academics have tried to analyze the issue of MSME access to finance, emphasizing their dependence on credit and...

This report provides a baseline analysis of the status of access to finance for micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) with a particular focus on women entrepreneur' ability and constraints in accessing finance in order to develop and grow their businesses. It is based on a...