The paper reviews the role of Small and Medium Size Enterprises (SMEs) as drivers of employment and economic growth in rural regions across a number of OECD geographies. It argues that SME creation is especially important for rural economic development and identified lessons for national level...

Based on an extensive review of the academic and policy literature, this paper focuses on the role of managerial skills, workforce skills and business linkages in enhancing SME productivity. The paper is structured as follows. First, it presents estimates on productivity gaps by firm size to...