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How Important Are Financing Constraints? The Role of Finance in the Business Environment

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Author Info
Meghana Ayyagari
Asli Demirgüç-Kunt
Vojislav Maksimovic

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Abstract

What role does the business environment play in promoting or restraining firm growth? Recent literature points to a number of factors as obstacles to growth. Inefficient functioning of financial markets, inadequate security and enforcement of property rights, poor provision of infrastructure, inefficient regulation and taxation, and broader governance features such as corruption and macroeconomic stability are all discussed without any comparative evidence on their ordering. Using firm-level survey data on the relative importance of different features of the business environment, the article finds that although firms report many obstacles to growth, not all the obstacles are equally constraining. Some affect firm growth only indirectly through their influence on other obstacles, or not at all. Analyses using directed acyclic graph methodology and regressions find that only obstacles related to finance, crime, and policy instability directly affect firm growth. The finance result is shown to be the most robust. The results have important implications for the priority of reforms. Maintaining policy stability, keeping crime under control, and undertaking financial sector reforms to relax financing constraints are likely to be the most effective routes to promote firm growth. Copyright The Author 2008. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development / the world bank. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org, Oxford University Press.

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File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/wber/lhn018
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Article provided by Oxford University Press in its journal The World Bank Economic Review.

Volume (Year): 22 (2008)
Issue (Month): 3 (November)
Pages: 483-516
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Handle: RePEc:oup:wbecrv:v:22:y:2008:i:3:p:483-516

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References listed on IDEAS
Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
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Full references

Cited by:
(explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)

  1. Demirguc-Kunt, Asli, 2006. "Finance and economic development : policy choices for developing countries," Policy Research Working Paper Series 3955, The World Bank. [Downloadable!]
  2. Aterido, Reyes & Hallward-Driemeier, Mary & Pages, Carmen, 2009. "Big constraints to small firms'growth ? business environment and employment growth across firms," Policy Research Working Paper Series 5032, The World Bank. [Downloadable!]
  3. Huang, Zuhui & Zhang, Xiaobo & Zhu, Yunwei, 2006. "The Formation of Wenzhou Footwear Clusters: How Were the Entry Barriers Overcome?," 2006 Annual Meeting, August 12-18, 2006, Queensland, Australia 25371, International Association of Agricultural Economists. [Downloadable!]
  4. Beck, Thorsten & Demirguc-Kunt, Asli & Martinez Peria, Maria Soledad, 2006. "Banking services for everyone ? Barriers to bank access and use around the world," Policy Research Working Paper Series 4079, The World Bank. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  5. Wendy Carlin & Mark Schaffer & Paul Seabright, 2006. "Where are the Real Bottlenecks? A Lagrangian Approach to Identifying Constraints on Growth from Subjective Survey Data," CERT Discussion Papers 0604, Centre for Economic Reform and Transformation, Heriot Watt University. [Downloadable!]
  6. Ayyagari, Meghana & Demirguc-Kunt, Asli & Maksimovic, Vojislav, 2005. "How well do institutional theories explain firms'perceptions of property rights?," Policy Research Working Paper Series 3709, The World Bank. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  7. Durnev, Art & Fauver, Larry, 2008. "Stealing from Thieves: Firm Governance and Performance when States are Predatory," CEI Working Paper Series 2008-12, Center for Economic Institutions, Institute of Economic Research, Hitotsubashi University. [Downloadable!]
  8. Gelb, Alan & Ramachandran, Vijaya & Shah, Manju Kedia & Turner, Ginger, 2007. "What matters to African firms ? the relevance of perceptions data," Policy Research Working Paper Series 4446, The World Bank. [Downloadable!]
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