This report addresses the core components of enterprise activity, namely, the factors of production and the public infrastructure to support them. In the period just before the financial crisis, a number of elements, such as access to finance, skills and education of labor, and infrastructure...

The importance of a country's "investment climate" for economic growth has recently received much attention. The authors address the general lack of appropriate data for measuring the investment climate and its effects. The authors use a new survey of 1,500 Chinese enterprises in five cities to...

The importance of a country's "investment climate" for economic growth has recently received much attention. A contribution of this paper is to address the general lack of appropriate data for measuring the investment climate and its effects. In this paper we use a new survey of 1500 Chinese...

It is difficult to be sure that managers in developing countries report financial information accurately and truthfully during firm surveys. The most common concern is that managers might under-report performance to avoid attracting attention from the tax authorities or corrupt bureaucrats....

If corrupt bureaucrats target registered firms, then corruption may discourage registration. Using data from a survey of 4,801 microenterprises in Zambia, this paper looks at whether corruption is a more or less serious problem for registered firms. The paper finds results consistent with the...