Technology is one of the main drivers of productivity and economic growth. Developing countries have traditionally had difficulties in both developing technology and absorbing foreign technology. Seventy to eighty percent of the productivity gap between developed and developing countries is...

Many innovative start-ups and small and medium-size enterprises have good ideas, but do not have these ideas fine-tuned to the stage where they can attract outside funding. Investment readiness programs attempt to help firms to become ready to attract and accept outside equity funding through a...

Is it the institutions or firm characteristics at birth that shape startups and their early growth in developing countries? Using comprehensive data from the Indian Annual Survey of Industries this paper addresses this question by studying the early lifecycle of firms across diverse...

During the past decades, firms from emerging economies have significantly increased the amount of financing obtained in capital markets. Whereas the literature argues that international markets have been an important contributor to this process, the role of domestic markets is mostly unknown. By...

How many and which firms issue equity and bonds in domestic and international markets, how do these firms grow relative to non-issuing firms, and how does firm performance vary along the firm size distribution? To evaluate these questions, a new data set is constructed by matching data on...

Despite regulatory efforts designed to make it easier for firms to formalize, informality remains extremely high among firms in Sub-Saharan Africa. In most of the region, business registration in a national registry is separate from tax registration. This paper provides initial results from an...

In recent years, many emerging market countries have developed or are in the process of developing SME Exchanges to provide financing to SMEs, but few have succeeded. This paper aims to help stock exchanges and policy makers think through the ke

In most emerging markets, the lack of acceptable collateral is often cited as a key constraint on the provision of credit to agriculture. Three main types of collateral are typically used to finance agriculture: farmland, equipment, and agricultural commodities. In many economies, however, the...

This document has the purpose of identifying and describing actions that could aid in facilitating the financing of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) through instruments channeled via the capital markets. By way of precedent, it is worthwhile to mention the document a Argentina capital market...