TY - BOOK ID - 133701268 TI - SMEs, Growth, and Poverty AU - Beck, Thorsten. AU - Demirguc-Kunt, Asli. AU - Levine, Ross. AU - National Bureau of Economic Research. PY - 2005 PB - Cambridge, Mass. National Bureau of Economic Research DB - UniCat KW - Economic Development KW - Development Planning and Policy KW - Production, Pricing, and Market Structure • Size Distribution of Firms KW - Firm Performance: Size, Diversification, and Scope UR - https://www.unicat.be/uniCat?func=search&query=sysid:133701268 AB - This paper explores the relationship between the relative size of the Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) sector, economic growth, and poverty alleviation using a new database on the share of SME labor in the total manufacturing labor force. Using a sample of 45 countries, we find a strong, positive association between the importance of SMEs and GDP per capita growth. The data do not, however, confidently support the conclusions that SMEs exert a causal impact on growth. Furthermore, we find no evidence that SMEs alleviate poverty or decrease income inequality. ER -