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This paper assesses the effects of selected structural reforms on labor productivity growth for 37 developing countries over 2006-14. It combines newly constructed reform indexes using the International Monetary Fund's Monitoring of Fund Arrangements data set and firm-level productivity from the World Bank Enterprise Surveys. The paper highlights the following results. Structural reforms under consideration in this study-financial, fiscal, real sector, and trade reforms-significantly improve productivity at the firm level. Interestingly, real sector reforms have the most sizable effects on firms' productivity. The relationship between reforms and productivity is nonlinear and shaped by certain characteristics of firms, including financial access, a distortionary environment, and firms' size. The pace of reforms matters, since being a "strong reformer" is associated with a clear productivity dividend for firms. Finally, except for financial and trade reforms, all the macroeconomic reforms considered are bilaterally complementary in improving firms' productivity. These findings are robust to several sensitivity checks, including alternative methodologies and measures of productivity, and a counterfactual experiment based on unsuccessful reforms.

Access to Finance --- Business Environment --- Consumption --- Developing Countries --- Economic Growth --- Economic Theory & Research --- Finance and Financial Sector Development --- Fiscal & Monetary Policy --- Industrial Economics --- Macroeconomics and Economic Growth --- Marketing --- Private Sector Development --- Private Sector Development Law --- Private Sector Economics --- Productivity --- Structural Reforms --- Technology Industry --- Technology Innovation

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This paper investigates the effects of financial sector, product market, and trade reforms on labor productivity growth and its two components-the intra-sectoral (within) and inter-sectoral (between) components-in a sample of developing countries over 1975-2005. The paper finds that most of the past trade, product, and financial sector reforms have increased the growth rate of labor productivity. In particular, countries that are further away from the technology leader tend to benefit more from structural reforms than countries closer to the technology frontier. Looking at the subcomponents of labor productivity growth, the paper finds that structural reforms work mostly through the intra-allocative efficiency channel but not through the inter-allocative efficiency channel. The intra-sectoral component is the main driver of the impacts of reforms on labor productivity growth, with a contribution between 76 and 96 percent.

Economic Growth --- Labor Markets --- Labor Productivity --- Macroeconomics and Economic Growth --- Private Sector Development --- Private Sector Economics --- Productivity --- Social Protections and Labor --- Structural Reform --- Structural Transformation --- Trade Reform