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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
226575
Downloads
3596
  • Study Description
  • Data Description
  • Documentation
  • Get Microdata
  • Identification
  • Scope
  • Coverage
  • Producers and sponsors
  • Sampling
  • Survey instrument
  • Data collection
  • Depositor information
  • Data Access
  • Disclaimer and copyrights
  • Contacts
  • Metadata production
  • Citation
  • 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 Role
    International Initiative for Impact Evaluation Funder
    Private Enterprise Development in Low Income Countries Funder
    Bank Netherlands Partnership Program Funder
    Strategic Research Program Funder
    Umbrella Facility for Gender Equality 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.

    Survey instrument

    Questionnaires

    Baseline questionnaire and four follow-up questionnaires attached

    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

    Depositor information

    Depositor
    Name Affiliation
    David J. McKenzie World Bank

    Data Access

    Access authority
    Name Affiliation Email
    David McKenzie World Bank dmckenzie@worldbank.org
    Confidentiality
    Is signing of a confidentiality declaration required? Confidentiality declaration text
    yes 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

    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.

    Contacts

    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

    Metadata production

    DDI Document ID

    DDI_MWI_2011_BRIE_v01_M_WB

    Producers
    Name Affiliation Role
    Development Economics Data Group The World Bank Documentation of the DDI

    Metadata version

    DDI Document version

    Version 01 (September 2018)

    Citation

    Citation
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