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    Home / Central Data Catalog / IMPACT_EVALUATION / MWI_2011_BRIEL_V01_M
impact_evaluation

Business Registration in Malawi Experimental Data and Replication Files 2011-2015

Malawi, 2011 - 2015
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Reference ID
MWI_2011_BRIEL_v01_M
DOI
https://doi.org/10.48529/gnk7-n020
Producer(s)
David McKenzie
Collection(s)
Impact Evaluation Surveys
Metadata
Documentation in PDF DDI/XML JSON
Created on
Sep 27, 2018
Last modified
May 05, 2021
Page views
84157
Downloads
1955
  • Study Description
  • Data Description
  • Documentation
  • Get Microdata
  • Identification
  • Scope
  • Coverage
  • Producers and sponsors
  • Sampling
  • Data Collection
  • Questionnaires
  • Access policy
  • Disclaimer and copyrights
  • Metadata production

Identification

Survey ID Number
MWI_2011_BRIEL_v01_M
Title
Business Registration in Malawi Experimental Data and Replication Files 2011-2015
Country/Economy
Name Country code
Malawi MWI
Study type
Informal Sector Survey
Abstract
We conduct a randomized experiment in Malawi to test three alternative approaches to formalizing firms: a) assisting firms to obtain a business registration certificate that offers access to formal markets but imposes no tax obligations; b) assisting firms to obtain both this business registration and tax registration; and c) supplementing the assistance to obtain business registration with a bank information session intended to help firms utilize one of the key potential benefits of formalizing. This dataset consists of a baseline, four rounds of follow-up surveys, administrative data, and replication files for replicating the results of the paper "How should the government bring small firms into the formal system? Experimental evidence from Malawi"
Kind of Data
Sample survey data [ssd]
Unit of Analysis
Microenterprise

Scope

Notes
The Malawi Enterprise study covered the following topics:

Baseline
- Basic information about the business
- Premises and equipment
- Finance
- Bank account and other financial services
- Business registration
- Production
- Price and sales
- Clients
- Profits, revenues and expenditures
- Financial literacy and preferences
- Challenges and thoughts about future
- Workers
- Training and networks
- Business owner
- Household information
- Household decision making

Midline and Endline
- Contact details of business owners
- Information on business operation
- Information about time dedicated to business
- Assets and new investments
- Credit
- Savings
- Bank account
- Registration
- Production, sales, and business practices
- Profits, revenues and expenditures
- Workers and business owners
- Opinions, income and household

Coverage

Geographic Coverage
We target firms in urban Lilongwe and Blantyre, the major commercial cities in Malawi. At the end of 2011, we listed over 100 business centers - that is, concentrations of firms including industrial parks, markets, streets with shops, set of workshops, etc. - and randomly sampled 46 of these business centers (23 in each city) to list all businesses operating within these areas.

Producers and sponsors

Primary investigators
Name Affiliation
David McKenzie World Bank
Producers
Name Affiliation Role
Francisco Campos World Bank co-PI
Markus Goldstein World Bank co-PI
Funding Agency/Sponsor
Name Abbreviation Role
International Initiative for Impact Evaluation 3ie Funder
Private Enterprise Development in Low Income Countries PEDL Funder
Bank Netherlands Partnership Program BNPP Funder
Strategic Research Program SRP Funder
Umbrella Facility for Gender Equality UFGE Funder
Investment Climate Impact Program/ComPEL Funder

Sampling

Sampling Procedure
In this study we target the informal micro and small enterprises that are likely to be able to benefit the most from business registration, and that the government has said would be their first group of interest for a future road-show on business registration. We target firms in urban Lilongwe and Blantyre, the major commercial cities in Malawi. At the end of 2011, we listed over 100 business centers - that is, concentrations of firms including industrial parks, markets, streets with shops, set of workshops, etc. - and randomly sampled 46 of these business centers (23 in each city) to list all businesses operating within these areas. Through this process we listed 7,603 enterprises, 85 percent of which were not registered at the DRG. With this process, we excluded from the sample household-based enterprises.

To draw the sample for the baseline, we stratified the listing data by location and gender of the business owner and identified 3,600 firms that complied with one of the following criteria: (i) had at least one worker contracted outside of family members and business owners, (ii) were operating in a fixed location with more than one person working in the business, (iii) were at the 25th percentile of revenues or above. Through this process, we completed a detailed baseline survey for 3,002 informal firms, of which 1,195 were female-owned and 1,494 were from Lilongwe.

Data Collection

Dates of Data Collection
Start End Cycle
2011-12 2012-04 Baseline
2012-11 2013-03 Follow-up 1
2013-11 2014-03 Follow-up 2
2014-11 2015-03 Follow-up 3
2015-06 2015-10 Follow-up 4
Data Collection Mode
Face-to-face [f2f]

Questionnaires

Questionnaires
Baseline questionnaire and four follow-up questionnaires attached

Access policy

Contacts
Name Affiliation Email
David McKenzie World Bank dmckenzie@worldbank.org
Francisco Campos World Bank fcampos@worldbank.org
Markus Goldstein World Bank mgoldstein@worldbank.org
Confidentiality
All identifying information have been removed
Access conditions
Public use for non-commercial purposes
Citation requirements
Campos, Francisco, Markus Goldstein and David McKenzie (2018) "How should the government bring small firms into the formal system? Experimental evidence from Malawi", World Bank Policy Research Working Paper
Access authority
Name Affiliation Email
David McKenzie World Bank dmckenzie@worldbank.org

Disclaimer and copyrights

Disclaimer
The user of the data acknowledges that the original collector of the data, the authorized distributor of the data, and the relevant funding agency bear no responsibility for use of the data or for interpretations or inferences based upon such uses.

Metadata production

DDI Document ID
DDI_MWI_2011_BRIE_v01_M_WB
Producers
Name Abbreviation Affiliation Role
Development Economics Data Group DECDG The World Bank Documentation of the DDI
DDI Document version
Version 01 (September 2018)
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