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Drawing on a representative survey of firms in 38 countries, eight of which are in Sub-Saharan Africa, this paper documents the impact of COVID-19 and firms' coping strategies in Sub-Saharan Africa, benchmarking with other regions. The paper shows that the impact of the pandemic is more pronounced in Sub-Saharan Africa compared with other regions. This disproportionate impact is not explained by differences in sectoral composition and other firm characteristics, but likely by the level of development. This underscores the important economic and structural contexts that predate the pandemic in understanding the differential impact. Contrary to expectations, the findings show that businesses in Sub-Saharan Africa are more likely to adjust their operations or products and services to adapt to the shock than those in other regions. However, firms in the region lag in leveraging digital technologies, remote working, and e-commerce, compared with those in other regions.

Business Cycles and Stabilization Policies --- Coping Strategy --- Coronavirus --- COVID-19 --- Disease Control and Prevention --- Employment and Unemployment --- Enterprise Survey --- Firms --- Labor Markets --- Macroeconomics and Economic Growth --- Pandemic Impact --- Pandemic Response --- Private Sector Development --- Private Sector Economics --- Social Protections and Labor

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This paper uses World Bank survey data, including about 10,000 households in five countries-Burkina Faso, Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal, and Uganda-to investigate the link between international remittances and households' financial inclusion in Sub-Saharan Africa. The paper finds that receiving international remittances increases the probability that the household opens a bank account in all the five countries. This result is robust to controlling for the potential endogeneity of remittances, using as instruments indicators of the migrants' economic conditions in the destination countries.

Access to Finance --- Banks and Banking Reform --- Debt Markets --- Finance and Financial Sector Development --- Financial Inclusion --- Health, Nutrition and Population --- Macroeconomics and Economic Growth --- Population Policies --- Remittances

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The subject of which firms are the key employers-and which of these create or destroy jobs at a faster rate-is eminently important for academics and policy makers. The relative importance of small versus large firms and old versus young firms has in particular been extensively debated and studied. Nevertheless, the results often hinge on the questions that are asked. Moreover, the categorical definitions used to define firm size and age, and the nature and coverage of the data used have important effects. This paper lays out the relevant definitions and metrics that are central to the debate, reviewing the main findings to date on the subject (with particular emphasis on results in developing economies). The paper adds updated results for 117 developing economies using the World Bank's Enterprise Survey Data, finding that (i) small and medium enterprises and older establishments are the dominant employers in the nonagricultural private sector labor force in developing economies, and (ii) net job creation is negatively correlated with establishment age and, although the effect of size is also negative, its significance is sensitive to the definition and methods used.

Employment --- Finance and financial sector development --- Firm dynamics --- Jobs --- Labor management & relations --- Labor markets --- Labor policies --- Small scale enterprise --- SMEs --- Social protections and labor

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In most countries in Africa, the informal sector is large and exhibits low levels of productivity compared to the formal economy: informal firms are typically small, inefficient, and run by entrepreneurs with low levels of education. This paper presents novel representative firm-level data collected on informal firms in the three largest cities of Mozambique, as well as data of microenterprises, formally registered businesses with less than 5 employees, the segment of the private sector that compares best to informal firms. Compared to formal microenterprises, informal firms sell about 14 times less, make 17 times lower profits and are 2-3 times less productive. Almost two-thirds (61 percent) of these performance gaps can be explained by differences in firm characteristics: informal firms are smaller and have limited skills, adapt fewer good business practices, use less capital and production inputs and are less likely to have access to finance. The rest of the productivity gap is explained by differential returns. Despite this "duality" between formality and informality, there is nevertheless a small but significant group of informal enterprises (7.6 percent of informal firms, representing 10.6 percent of employment in the informal sector) that in their characteristics and productivity levels are similar to formal microenterprises. Policies should take this heterogeneity into account.

Access To Finance --- Business Registration --- Enterprise Development and Reform --- Informal Sector --- Informality --- Legal Regulation and Business Environment --- Private Sector Development --- Private Sector Economics --- Small and Medium Size Enterprises --- Taxation