sample of firms in Vietnam, Senegal, and the Brazilian state of Ceara. The analysis finds a large variance in technology … sophistication across the business functions of a firm. The within-firm variance in technology sophistication is greater than the … variance in sophistication across firms, which in turn is greater than the variance in sophistication across regions or …

. First, the COVID-19 shock has been severe and widespread across firms, with persistent negative impact on sales. Second, the … small share of firms laying off workers. Third, smaller firms are disproportionately facing greater financial constraints …. Fourth, firms are increasingly relying on digital solutions as a response to the shock. Fifth, there is great uncertainty …

David Malpass, President of the World Bank, discussed the severe health and economic impacts that the Coronavirus 2019 … tailored to the countries to effectively respond to the health, economic, and social shocks that that country are facing. On …

Formalizing firms can potentially increase the tax base, expand safety and social protections for workers, create good … jobs, and grow the economy. However, the costs and processes of formality may be too challenging for firms, particularly … the smallest firms, to bear. Thus, informal firms may not be able to survive the transition to formality and attempts to …

enforcement may be at play. The paper also finds that firms' discriminatory behavior harms women's labor market outcomes, in their …This paper contributes to better understanding firms' discriminatory behavior in the presence of gender-based legal … discrimination and its linkages with labor market outcomes for women in a developing country setting. Using data collected through …

networks appear to be key for female-owned firms, with co-ownership with husbands and male role models factoring into the …

The role of 'first movers' in fragile states is critical: they grow and diversify markets in ways that no other firms … do, generating disproportionate impact in terms of development and stability. But pioneer firms are rare in fragile … resetting negative self-fulfilling investor narratives, development finance institutions can help pioneering firms shift the …

A supply chain is only as strong as its weakest link. Firms are constantly managing uncertainties, including unexpected … estimator to investigate how unpredictability in border clearance times for imports affects manufacturing firms' entry, exit … the entry nor the exit rate, but translates into lower survival rates for new exporters, reducing the number of firms that …