Enterprise Survey 2009
Nepal, 2009
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NPL_2009_ES_v01_M_WB
Enterprise Survey 2009
| Name | Country code |
|---|---|
| Nepal | NPL |
Enterprise/Establishment Survey [en/oth]
An Enterprise Survey is a firm-level survey of a representative sample of an economy's private sector. Firm-level surveys have been conducted since 1998 by different units within the World Bank. Since 2005-06, most data collection efforts have been centralized within the Enterprise Analysis Unit. Enterprise Surveys are conducted every three to four years across all geographic regions and cover small, medium, and large companies. Data are used to create indicators that benchmark the quality of the business and investment climate across countries.
The objective of the survey is to obtain feedback from enterprises in client countries on the state of the private sector as well as to help in building a panel of enterprise data that will make it possible to track changes in the business environment over time, thus allowing, for example, impact assessments of reforms. Through interviews with firms in the manufacturing and services sectors, the survey assesses the constraints to private sector growth and creates statistically significant business environment indicators that are comparable across countries.
The standard Enterprise Survey topics include firm characteristics, gender participation, access to finance, annual sales, costs of inputs/labor, workforce composition, bribery, licensing, infrastructure, trade, crime, competition, capacity utilization, land and permits, taxation, informality, business-government relations, innovation and technology, and performance measures. Over 90% of the questions objectively ascertain characteristics of a country’s business environment. The remaining questions assess the survey respondents’ opinions on what are the obstacles to firm growth and performance. The mode of data collection is face-to-face interviews.
Sample survey data [ssd]
The primary sampling unit of the study is the establishment. An establishment is a physical location where business is carried out and where industrial operations take place or services are provided. A firm may be composed of one or more establishments. For example, a brewery may have several bottling plants and several establishments for distribution. For the purposes of this survey an establishment must make its own financial decisions and have its own financial statements separate from those of the firm. An establishment must also have its own management and control over its payroll.
Coverage
National
The whole population, or the universe, covered in the Enterprise Surveys is the non-agricultural economy. It comprises: all manufacturing sectors according to the ISIC Revision 3.1 group classification (group D), construction sector (group F), services sector (groups G and H), and transport, storage, and communications sector (group I). Note that this population definition excludes the following sectors: financial intermediation (group J), real estate and renting activities (group K, except sub-sector 72, IT, which was added to the population under study), and all public or utilities sectors.
Producers and sponsors
| Name |
|---|
| World Bank |
| Name |
|---|
| World Bank |
Sampling
The sample for Nepal was selected using stratified random sampling. Three levels of stratification were used in this country: industry, establishment size, and region.
Industry stratification was designed at three levels: the universe was stratified into manufacturing, retail, and other services industries. Other services were further divided into tourism and non-tourism as the World Bank wanted to oversample tourism firms. The initial sample design for the n=480 Enterprise Survey had a target of 180 interviews in manufacturing, 150 retail, 75 other services - tourism, and 75 interviews in other services - non-tourism.
Size stratification was defined following the standardized definition used for the Enterprise Surveys: small (5 to 19 employees), medium (20 to 99 employees), and large (100 or more employees). 360 interviews were targeted for the Enterprise Survey (small, medium, and large firms) with an oversampling of large firms given the high prevalence of micro and small firms in Nepal.
Regional stratification was defined in terms of the geographic regions with the main cities of economic activity in the country. Western Nepal included Butwal, Dhangadhi, Nepalgunj, and Pokhara; Central Nepal included Banepa, Bhaktapur, Bharatpur, Birgunj, Hetauda, Kathmandu, Lalitpur, and Simara; Eastern Nepal included Bhadrapur, Biratnagar, and Itahari.
Initially a sample frame was sought from the Government of Nepal and from appropriate trade associations; but the lists that were obtained were deemed incomplete and potentially out of date. In consultation with the contractor, the World Bank decided to undertake block enumeration, i.e. the contractor would physically create a list of establishments from which to sample from. In total, the contractor enumerated 6,755 establishments for the survey fieldwork.
Detailed information about block enumeration strategy can be can be found in "Description of Nepal Implementation 2009" in "Technical Documents" folder.
The overall survey response rate for the Nepal Enterprise survey was 95% (486 completed interviews / 513 attempted interviews). The response rate was very high because eligible firms were keenly aware of the survey project during the block enumeration phase where they were shown the letters of introduction from the World Bank and other stakeholders; hence they were less likely to refuse the actual survey during the fieldwork phase of the project.
The Nepal Enterprise survey response rate was quite high for establishment-level surveys and the contractor did an excellent job at encouraging respondents to respond to sensitive questions (thereby minimizing item non-response). For example the item response rate for variable d2, establishment's total annual sales in the last fiscal year, one of the most sensitive questions, had a 99% item response rate (480/486).
Complete information regarding the sampling methodology, sample frame, weights, response rates, and implementation can be found in "Description of Nepal Implementation 2009" in "Technical Documents" folder.
Since the sampling design was stratified and employed differential sampling of the strata, individual observations should be properly weighted when making inferences about the population. Under stratified random sampling, unweighted estimates are biased unless sample sizes are proportional to the size of each stratum. With stratification the probability of selection of each unit is, in general, not the same. Consequently, individual observations must be weighted by the inverse of their probability of selection (probability weights or pa in Stata, which is equivalent to the weighted average of the estimates for each stratum, with weights equal to the population shares of each stratum).
Weights for each cell were computed this way: universe cell estimates are divided by the achieved cell counts.
Survey instrument
The current survey instruments are available:
- Core Questionnaire + Manufacturing Module [ISIC Rev.3.1: 15-37] in English with Nepali translation
- Core Questionnaire + Retail Module [ISIC Rev.3.1: 52] in English with Nepali translation
- Core Questionnaire [ISIC Rev.3.1: 45, 50, 51, 55, 60-64, 72] in English with Nepali translation
- Screener Questionnaire in English.
The “Core Questionnaire” is the heart of the Enterprise Survey and contains the survey questions asked of all firms across the world. There are also two other survey instruments - the “Core Questionnaire + Manufacturing Module” and the “Core Questionnaire + Retail Module.” The survey is fielded via three instruments in order to not ask questions that are irrelevant to specific types of firms, e.g. a question that relates to production and nonproduction workers should not be asked of a retail firm. In addition to questions that are asked across countries, all surveys are customized and contain country-specific questions. An example of customization would be including tourism-related questions that are asked in certain countries when tourism is an existing or potential sector of economic growth.
The standard Enterprise Survey topics include firm characteristics, gender participation, access to finance, annual sales, costs of inputs/labor, workforce composition, bribery, licensing, infrastructure, trade, crime, competition, capacity utilization, land and permits, taxation, informality, business-government relations, innovation and technology, and performance measures. Over 90% of the questions objectively ascertain characteristics of a country’s business environment. The remaining questions assess the survey respondents’ opinions on what are the obstacles to firm growth and performance.
Data collection
| Start | End |
|---|---|
| 2009-03 | 2009-06 |
| Name |
|---|
| Solutions Consultant Pvt. Ltd. |
Complete information regarding the sampling methodology, sample frame, weights, response rates, and implementation can be found in "Description of Nepal Implementation 2009" in "Technical Documents" folder.
Private contractors conduct the Enterprise Surveys on behalf of the World Bank. Due to sensitive survey questions addressing business-government relations and corruption-related topics, private contractors are preferred over any government agency or an organization/institution associated with government, and are hired by the World Bank to collect the data.
The Enterprise Surveys are usually implemented following a two-stage procedure. In the first stage, a screener questionnaire is applied over the phone to determine eligibility and to make appointments; in the second stage, a face-to-face interview takes place with the Manager/Owner/Director of each establishment. Sometimes the survey respondent calls company accountants and human resource managers into the interview to answer questions in the sales and labor sections of the survey.
In Nepal, the relevant information for the sampled firms had already been collected during the block enumeration stage. The data collection team started the study by verifying the information required in the screener. The verification was typically conducted over the phone. More than 85% of the firms were called in for appointments. However, some of the establishments in the sample did not have correct phone number, or had no phone number at all. In such cases, the team had to visit these businesses and make an appointment with a potential respondent.
All Enterprise Surveys are conducted in the local languages.
Data processing
Data entry and quality controls are implemented by the contractor and data is delivered to the World Bank in batches (typically 10%, 50% and 100%). These data deliveries are checked for logical consistency, out of range values, skip patterns, and duplicate entries. Problems are flagged by the World Bank and corrected by the implementing contractor through data checks, callbacks, and revisiting establishments.
Data Access
| Is signing of a confidentiality declaration required? | Confidentiality declaration text |
|---|---|
| yes | Confidentiality of the survey respondents and the sensitive information they provide is necessary to ensure the greatest degree of survey participation, integrity and confidence in the quality of the data. Surveys are usually carried out in cooperation with business organizations and government agencies promoting job creation and economic growth, but confidentiality is never compromised. |
Aggregate indicators based on Enterprise Survey data are available to the public at https://www.enterprisesurveys.org
Firm-level data is also available to the public free-of-charge. In order to access the firm-level data, users must agree to abide by a strict confidentiality agreement available through Enterprise Analysis Unit website by clicking on "External users register here" at https://www.enterprisesurveys.org/Portal
Where necessary please site the source as "Enterprise Analysis Unit - World Bank Group www.enterprisesurveys.org"
Contacts
| enterprisesurveys@worldbank.org |
Metadata production
DDI_NPL_2009_ES_v01_M_WB
| Name |
|---|
| Antonina Redko |
Metadata version
v01