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The formal private sector has a key role to play in fostering growth and reducing unemployment in South Africa-strengthening its performance is therefore critical. This paper looks at firm behaviour, firm entry and exit, job outcomes, and productivity dynamics using firm-level administrative data for South Africa. It is the first paper to benchmark employment and productivity dynamics against various comparator countries for which similar analysis has been undertaken. The paper finds that South Africa has an aged private sector with low firm dynamism and characterized by large firms that hold a large share of employment and revenue, although they are not as productive as micro firms and pay lower wages on average. The paper also finds that job creation is concentrated predominantly in incumbent firms, which are old and large, and job creation from entry and exit is negligible. The static and dynamic productivity decompositions raise a concern that although productive efficiency is gained, it is at least in part at the expense of labor. Large firms are not exploiting economies of scale, and particularly unproductive large firms may drive the weak performance of the private sector. Relatively high wages in South Africa could be partly explained by the inefficient use of labor and negative correlation between productivity and size. Likewise, these larger firms could be responsible for the negative direct impact on jobs of firms raising productivity.

Efficiency of Allocation --- Firm Dynamics --- Job Creation --- Private Sector Development --- Productivity --- Social Protections and Labor --- Wages, Compensation and Benefits

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Does democratization promote economic competition? This paper documents that the disruption of political connections associated with Suharto's fall had a modest pro-competitive effect on Indonesian manufacturing industries in which his family had extensive business interests. Firms with connections to Suharto lost substantial market share following his resignation. Industries in which Suharto family firms had larger market share during his tenure exhibited weak improvements in broader measures of competition in the post-Suharto era relative to industries in which Suharto firms had not been important players.

Competition Policy --- Corporate Governance and Corruption --- Corruption --- Cronyism --- Democracy --- Democratic Government --- Firm Dynamics --- Governance --- Manufacturing --- Political Connections --- Political Turnover --- Private Sector Development --- Public Sector Development --- State-Business Relationships

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This paper explores a rich dataset of monthly firm-level data on the population of exporters of Lao PDR from 2005 to 2010. The survival analysis uses a discrete-time logistic model based on firm-product-destination triplets while accounting for unobserved heterogeneity. It looks in detail at the role played by two important and related determinants of survival: experience and networks. These are particularly relevant for developing countries, where relevant export experience in firms is likely to be limited and networks leveraging it all the more important. The analysis reveals the positive impact of having prior experience with the export product and destination, experience with importing, as well as using a developed neighboring country as launch platform. Networks are found to be most relevant when they are most specific-the largest impact comes from province level aggregations of firms selling the same product in the same market during a particular month. A competing risks model was also investigated to discern the impact of these determinants on the likelihood of experiencing an upgrade to a superior product versus termination when a trade contract ends.

Debt Markets --- Duration --- E-Business --- Economic Theory & Research --- Firm dynamics --- Geographical Information Systems --- Macroeconomics and Economic Growth --- Markets and Market Access --- Poverty Reduction --- Survival --- Trade networks

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Regional economic engagement within South Asia may gain increasing importance owing to several factors that are currently in play, including strategies to diversify global value chains and locate such value chains nearer home. These developments offer South Asia a chance to enhance its low levels of regional economic engagement and capitalize on significant unrealized development opportunities. This report shows that examining intraregional investment and knowledge connectivity enhances our understanding of the low levels of intraregional trade and limited regional value chains in South Asia. Creating a new and unique data set for South Asian investment, it provides a detailed and nuanced understanding of the drivers of outward investment, both regional and global, for South Asian firms. "Regional Investment Pioneers in South Asia" provides key considerations for policy makers in South Asia, which remain particularly relevant in the aftermath of the pandemic. First, it makes a case for regulatory relaxation of outward FDI regimes, based on new micro foundations, grounded in value chains. Second, it spells out details of smart inward FDI promotion techniques and investment facilitation. Third, it identifies distinct cross-border information-enhancing and network development activities. Fourth, it suggests that digital connectivity and continued interventions in reducing trade costs are warranted to increase investment as well as trade flows. There is particular scope to build on the digitalization initiatives in trade and investment facilitation taken during the pandemic. "Regional Investment Pioneers in South Asia" follows on, and is complementary to, the earlier World Bank report, "A Glass Half Full: the Promise of Regional Trade in South Asia."

Conglomerate --- Diapora Investment --- Exports --- FDI --- Firm --- Firm Dynamics --- Firm Entry --- Foreign Direct Investment --- Hetorogeneity --- Investment --- Networks --- Productivity --- Regional Integration --- Value Chain

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This paper studies the extent to which firms in China and India use capital markets to obtain financing and grow. Using a unique data set on domestic and international capital raising activity and firm performance, it finds that the expansion of financial market activity since the 1990s has been more limited than what the aggregate figures suggest. Relatively few firms raise capital. Even fewer firms capture the bulk of the financing. Moreover, firms that issue equity or bonds are different and behave differently from other publicly listed firms. Among other things, they are typically larger and grow faster. The differences between users and non-users exist before the capital raising activity, are associated with the probability of raising capital, and become more accentuated afterward. The distribution of issuing firms shifts more over time than the distribution of those that do not issue, suggesting little convergence in firm size among listed firms.

Access to Finance --- Access to finance --- Banks & Banking Reform --- Bond markets --- Capital market development --- Capital raising --- Debt Markets --- Economic Theory & Research --- Finance and Financial Sector Development --- Firm dynamics --- Firm size distribution --- Macroeconomics and Economic Growth --- Microfinance --- Stock markets